Mercury News
In an urgent attempt to maintain universal health coverage for children in Santa Clara County, community leaders are organizing a campaign to rescue one of the region's landmark programs for working poor families.
Their goal is to win broad support for a November ballot measure that would pump $13.5 million per year into the Healthy Kids program through a $29-a-year parcel tax on county property owners. County leaders recognize the challenge: Asking voters in a down economy to assist other families who can't afford insurance for their children.
The program — now serving 8,500 children — is a core piece of a far larger children's health initiative begun in 2001 and considered the first of its kind in the nation. Twenty-eight other counties have tried to mimic its success in linking 97 percent of children with heath insurance.
But that could quickly change, proponents of the November ballot measure warn, given the ailing economy's impact on private donors and foundations that are critical to Healthy Kids' survival but drying up at the end of 2010.
Like so many other social welfare programs in California, coverage for uninsured children faces a dubious future if new funding streams are not found, said Kathleen King, Saratoga's mayor and executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Health Foundation.
"The foundations can't keep doing it with their donations," King said. "So these great programs are going to go away if we don't find another source."
King said backtracking would be devastating. When the children's health initiative began, one in eight kids in Santa Clara County lacked health insurance. Since then, 171,000 have been enrolled in one of three publicly funded insurance programs that provide medical, dental and vision coverage.
Families on the program call it a lifesaver.
"If Healthy Kids was not there, I don't think that I would be talking to you right now. You'd have no one to interview me about," said Rogelio Patingo, of San Jose, whose daughter was born with Down syndrome and has endured a lifetime of surgeries and monthly hospitalizations — much of it made possible through Healthy Kids.
He has worked seven days a week as an auto mechanic, taken evening classes to improve his craft and spent nights on the pediatric ward so his wife can leave their daughter's bedside to go home and shower. But Patingo cannot afford insurance for the couple's only child, whose lifelong ailments include a heart defect.
Now 12, Maria functions as a 7- or 8-year-old, but loves teeny-bopper sitcoms and music downloads.
"Because my daughter's condition is complicated, all of her doctors are specialists, so I don't think I could handle those specialist doctors," he said. Especially not in a market of rising California health insurance quotes.
Yet Healthy Kids' overall enrollment has been squeezed each month. As kids grow too old for the program when they turn 19, there is no funding to allow a newcomer the space, directors say. For more than three years, the program has been closed to new enrollees.
Santa Clara County's children's health initiative has three tiers for working poor families such as Patingo's. The poorest are enrolled in the state and federally funded Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs. Those without employer-sponsored coverage who earn at least $66,150 per year — 300 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four — are placed on the county-run Healthy Kids program.
The program is already unable to meet its costs, King said. About half of the Healthy Kids' $11 million budget comes from the county, local cities and tobacco taxes. Private foundations, individual donors and corporate sponsors have for the past decade made up the rest. But already this year, three top donors have pulled out $3 million in funding, and some public grants are looking iffy. Parents pay $4 to $21 a month per child, with a maximum cost of $63 per family.
The program's local and private funding grants it independence. Healthy Kids is the only program in the local health initiative that does not require proof of legal residency. Thus, many on the program will not be eligible for assistance under the recently passed national health care reform legislation.
Three out of four recipients live in two-parent working families and more than 90 percent of the children live with a working parent. A recent study of the county health initiative funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation found that kids on the program missed fewer school days, and repeated sick visits to the doctor dropped by 50 percent.
County Supervisor Ken Yeager said supervisors voted unanimously in May to place the parcel tax measure on the ballot because there are no other viable alternatives to assist these families. But, he conceded, given the down economy, it will not be easy reaching the two-thirds threshold required of ballot measures. Property owners may not want yet another bill to pay.
Contrary sentiment is already evident among some local conservatives.
"We feel that the property taxes are already too high in the area now due to a lot of wasteful spending by local government," said Paul Komarek-Crockett, president of the Santa Clara County Tea Party. "The program is important, but I disagree with taxing additionally the property owners."
Komarek-Crockett added that his group will not use its resources to actively campaign against the ballot measure, "but we've told our followers that we don't approve of it."
Early polling commissioned by the health foundation, however, says the ballot measure has a chance. The tax would run 10 years beginning in 2011 and would not go toward administrative costs.
"Our residents care very much about the health of children and are going to be willing to support this," Yeager predicted. "People understand that you can pay now or you can pay later — to provide children continuous health coverage in the long run is cheaper than having them in the emergency room."
Their goal is to win broad support for a November ballot measure that would pump $13.5 million per year into the Healthy Kids program through a $29-a-year parcel tax on county property owners. County leaders recognize the challenge: Asking voters in a down economy to assist other families who can't afford insurance for their children.
The program — now serving 8,500 children — is a core piece of a far larger children's health initiative begun in 2001 and considered the first of its kind in the nation. Twenty-eight other counties have tried to mimic its success in linking 97 percent of children with heath insurance.
But that could quickly change, proponents of the November ballot measure warn, given the ailing economy's impact on private donors and foundations that are critical to Healthy Kids' survival but drying up at the end of 2010.
Like so many other social welfare programs in California, coverage for uninsured children faces a dubious future if new funding streams are not found, said Kathleen King, Saratoga's mayor and executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Health Foundation.
"The foundations can't keep doing it with their donations," King said. "So these great programs are going to go away if we don't find another source."
King said backtracking would be devastating. When the children's health initiative began, one in eight kids in Santa Clara County lacked health insurance. Since then, 171,000 have been enrolled in one of three publicly funded insurance programs that provide medical, dental and vision coverage.
Families on the program call it a lifesaver.
"If Healthy Kids was not there, I don't think that I would be talking to you right now. You'd have no one to interview me about," said Rogelio Patingo, of San Jose, whose daughter was born with Down syndrome and has endured a lifetime of surgeries and monthly hospitalizations — much of it made possible through Healthy Kids.
He has worked seven days a week as an auto mechanic, taken evening classes to improve his craft and spent nights on the pediatric ward so his wife can leave their daughter's bedside to go home and shower. But Patingo cannot afford insurance for the couple's only child, whose lifelong ailments include a heart defect.
Now 12, Maria functions as a 7- or 8-year-old, but loves teeny-bopper sitcoms and music downloads.
"Because my daughter's condition is complicated, all of her doctors are specialists, so I don't think I could handle those specialist doctors," he said. Especially not in a market of rising California health insurance quotes.
Yet Healthy Kids' overall enrollment has been squeezed each month. As kids grow too old for the program when they turn 19, there is no funding to allow a newcomer the space, directors say. For more than three years, the program has been closed to new enrollees.
Santa Clara County's children's health initiative has three tiers for working poor families such as Patingo's. The poorest are enrolled in the state and federally funded Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs. Those without employer-sponsored coverage who earn at least $66,150 per year — 300 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of four — are placed on the county-run Healthy Kids program.
The program is already unable to meet its costs, King said. About half of the Healthy Kids' $11 million budget comes from the county, local cities and tobacco taxes. Private foundations, individual donors and corporate sponsors have for the past decade made up the rest. But already this year, three top donors have pulled out $3 million in funding, and some public grants are looking iffy. Parents pay $4 to $21 a month per child, with a maximum cost of $63 per family.
The program's local and private funding grants it independence. Healthy Kids is the only program in the local health initiative that does not require proof of legal residency. Thus, many on the program will not be eligible for assistance under the recently passed national health care reform legislation.
Three out of four recipients live in two-parent working families and more than 90 percent of the children live with a working parent. A recent study of the county health initiative funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation found that kids on the program missed fewer school days, and repeated sick visits to the doctor dropped by 50 percent.
County Supervisor Ken Yeager said supervisors voted unanimously in May to place the parcel tax measure on the ballot because there are no other viable alternatives to assist these families. But, he conceded, given the down economy, it will not be easy reaching the two-thirds threshold required of ballot measures. Property owners may not want yet another bill to pay.
Contrary sentiment is already evident among some local conservatives.
"We feel that the property taxes are already too high in the area now due to a lot of wasteful spending by local government," said Paul Komarek-Crockett, president of the Santa Clara County Tea Party. "The program is important, but I disagree with taxing additionally the property owners."
Komarek-Crockett added that his group will not use its resources to actively campaign against the ballot measure, "but we've told our followers that we don't approve of it."
Early polling commissioned by the health foundation, however, says the ballot measure has a chance. The tax would run 10 years beginning in 2011 and would not go toward administrative costs.
"Our residents care very much about the health of children and are going to be willing to support this," Yeager predicted. "People understand that you can pay now or you can pay later — to provide children continuous health coverage in the long run is cheaper than having them in the emergency room."
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