Some 40 million children across the country, currently enrolled in Medicaid (CHIP), are at risk of losing health coverage for the 15 July, if the covid public health emergency program is not renewed-19 (PHE) that has kept millions of people insured during the pandemic. In California, the minors who could be left without health insurance are between 2 and 3 million, the majority Latinos.
During the videoconference: “Millions of children at risk of losing health insurance to measure that ends the emergency coverage of Covid-40”, offered by Ethnic Media Services, several experts spoke of what is at stake at the end of the federal guarantee of continued Medicaid coverage that expires this year.
Myra Alvarez of the organization Children’s Partnership , said that we cannot ignore the essential role that coverage and access to health has played in the lives of children, especially during the current public health crisis.
“We are currently operating under a public health emergency that will expire in July, but which we hope will be renewed.”
Noted that under this emergency, a series of facilities were launched in the programs p to support and protect communities.
“One of these was to allow families to remain with health coverage through Medicaid without additional administrative renewals and having to prove their eligibility during the crisis of covid health”.
If this program ends in July, it was estimated that 12 millions of people will lose Medicaid within a year after the emergency ends.
“Nearly 7 million children nationwide will be without insurance.”
In California, according to the Department of Health Care Services, an estimated 2.3 million Medicare beneficiaries will lose their health coverage after the emergency is over.
“That will translate into close of 800,12 and up to 1.2 million children who will lose their health coverage in California”.
He emphasized that it will be inappropriately affected orcionado to minority children, mainly Latinos and Native Americans who tend to depend more on Medical.
“More than 5 million children in MediCal are minority children.”
Mentioned that as we near the end of the public health emergency, it is essential to keep families enrolled in health care to ensure that the children are healthy and their care is not interrupted.
Revealed that they have worked with Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio on the AB bill 2402, so that children in MediCal continue to be enrolled until they are 5 years old, without having to go through administrative procedures.
“With this coverage for several years, children will have the opportunity not to miss their recommended doctor visits for their healthy development.”
Joan Alker of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said that continuing to provide coverage to families is really important at a time when they are struggling to cover the high costs of food and gasoline.
“Half of the children in the country are on Medicaid; and parents don’t have to worry about big medical bills, and we know that medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy.”
“So having this protection is really valuable and it’s been a light of hope during the pandemic”.
He specified that the states will have 000 months to review everyone’s eligibility once it is over, although some have said they will do so in three months.
“If the emergency is lifted on 15 October, people will have their coverage until the end of that month; or until November 1”.
Georgina Maldonado, director of the Community Health Initiative of Orange County, recalled that one of the great triumphs for the state of California, was when undocumented children became eligible for comprehensive health coverage.
“We we have faced many barriers because many minority parents have never navigated through the county health system because they have not had benefits”. services.
Another problem arises when families have illiteracy problems, and they require paychecks, information on their taxes, but their income is in cash.
Therefore, they consider that they do not qualify for this service, without knowing that they can help them with an affidavit.
Yingjia Huang of the Department of Care Services Sa Lud of California, which runs the Medical, said we know potentially the public health emergency from covid-19, will end this year.
“Once it is terminated, the protections will end, and the requirement to review eligibility each year will continue.”
In order to prepare, in April they began the “DHCS ambassador coverage” initiative, which motivates the community and community organizations to spread the word.
“The first thing is to update your contact information with the counties. It is important because when the public health emergency ends, the counties will begin asking beneficiaries to update their information and income so that they continue with their coverage.”
He pointed out that the main objective is to minimize any coverage gap.
“Currently, the state is covering 14.7 million of which 5.5 million are children”.