November 20, 2013
By Tim Morrissey,
MADISON, Wis. – Wisconsin is in the middle of the pack but losing ground in making sure children have health-care coverage, according to a report just released by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.
The report includes state comparisons, some of which are troubling to Jon Peacock, research director for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.
“One thing I noted is that Wisconsin has slipped to 17th in terms of the percentage of kids who are uninsured,” he said. “We’re still well above average, but Wisconsin hasn’t been doing as much as a number of other states in outreach and streamlining the enrollment process.”
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown center, said politics plays a role in states such as Wisconsin, which did not expand Medicaid coverage when the opportunity was presented several months ago.
“This is really a stark reminder,” she said, “that our elected officials would do well by the families in their state to take a step back and drop some of the political posturing and think about working together to improve the challenges that families face.”
According to the report, providing health insurance has lasting benefits for children and families. Healthy children do better in school, it found, and when parents don’t have to worry about unpaid medical bills, the entire family is more secure financially.
Nationally, according to the report, the uninsured rate for children actually is declining – but a new poll says the majority of Americans think it’s increasing. Alker pointed to the impact of programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
“Very few Americans are aware of the success that our country has had through Medicaid and CHIP in reducing the number of uninsured children,” she said, “and I think that’s an important ‘good news’ story that needs to get out.”
Peacock said there are 61,000 uninsured children in Wisconsin.
“Regardless of some of the policy choices made here in the state,” he said, “the Affordable Care Act still gives the state a great opportunity to reduce very substantially the number of uninsured kids, if the state and the private sector all work together.”
The poll released with the Georgetown report says nine out of 10 Americans believe all children in their state should have health coverage.
The report and poll are online at ccf.georgetown.edu.
