November 14, 2013
By Dan Heyman,
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Almost all West Virginia children have health care coverage, but many of their parents don’t, especially in working families.
The good news is that if the parents can get insurance, it could actually help the health of the children.
Renate Poer, director of health care policy for the consumer group West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, says the state is justly proud of its very successful children’s health insurance program. But she says it’s important to cover the adults in those families as well.
“The research actually shows that if parents are connected to the health care system, kids do get better care,” she points out. “When you get parents covered, you are supporting the health and well being of their children.”
In spite of national enrollment website problems, about 50,000 low income folks have signed up for West Virginia’s expanded Medicaid program.
Poer says that website – www.wvinroads.org – is working extremely well.
Adults in a family of three with an annual income less than $27,000 qualify for Medicaid. Some critics have argued that the government has no business subsidizing health care for working adults, but Poer says keeping them healthy means they are more likely to stay employed and better able to give their children the attention they deserve.
“If parents are sick, they can’t be as good a parent,” she stresses. “They have more frequent colds and upper respiratory infections. And those kinds of things will be taken care of.”
Poer says newly covered parents also get better information, which helps their children as well.
“If a parent is getting regular doctor visits, that doctor is teaching that parent about preventive care, and then that parent can understand the value of it for their child,” she says.
