What about the children?
As state budgets face monetary shortfalls, taxpayers should know it is cheaper to cover kids with health insurance than pay expensive hospital costs for uninsured kids. That is why federal, state, and community organizations collaborated to create Keiki Care for uninsured children and youths in “gap groups”–those who do not qualify for public health insurance and their parents cannot provide private health insurance. Specific provisions discourage dropping private health insurance to enroll in Keiki Care: (1) child must be continuously uninsured for six months, (2) limited health care benefits, and (3) out-of-pocket expenses.
A modest investment in Keiki Care helps Hawai’i’s economy. Should a sudden illness or injury occur, children are insured for emergency care, which averts personal and institutional financial crises. Keiki Care also connects children to a pediatrician and regular preventive health care. Compelling national health care statistics show that uninsured children are twice as likely not to receive any medical care and more than one in three uninsured children do not have a personal physician.
Parents with uninsured children often face hard choices: pay the electric bill or pay the doctor? Fill the refrigerator or fill a prescription? Overall, Keiki Care supports healthier children, confident parents and reliable payments to health care providers while allocating precious charity care and limited uninsured funds for others who are uninsurable.
Barbara Luksch
Project Director
Hawai’i Covering Kids
Honolulu
