ALBANY, N.Y., November 16 – A Childrens Defense Fund of New York (CDF-NY) report states that the total number of uninsured children in New York State was 415,000 in 2005. The number has increased by 61,000 from 2004 to 2005, a 17 percent jump, and the first increase in a decade.

Child Health Plus received a boost in 1998 with enhanced benefits, reduced premiums, elimination of co-payments, and an increase in the number of participating health plans. However, in 2005 the state implemented several policy reforms, including the repeal of childrens Medicaid expansion, a decrease in funding for community-based facilitated enrollment (from $20 to $17 million), and changes to the Family Health Plus program that limited workers eligibility for coverage.

Donna Lawrence, executive director of the CDF-NY, cites the 2005 changes as the main reasons for the increase in uninsured children in New York. According to Lawrence, A minimum of 16,000 children, and as many as 30,000, lost coverage in that transition process.

According to the CDF report, 75 percent of current uninsured children are school-aged, 8 out of 10 are U.S. citizens, and the majority live in working families.

Approximately 70 percent of the same children live in families whose incomes fall below 250 percent of the federal poverty level " about $40,000 a year for a family of three " and are eligible for health insurance but are not enrolled.

CDF-NY has proposed a five-year plan to provide health insurance to all children in New York with a $46 million estimated cost in state funds for the first year.

The plan has three major components:

To expand eligibility under Child Health Plus B by raising the maximum income level for coverage from 250 percent to 500 percent of the federal poverty level. This would guarantee access to subsidized coverage for nearly all of New Yorks uninsured children;

To simplify the enrollment and renewal procedures by documentation that is not federally mandated, increasing the use of computers, eliminating the requirement for face-to-face interviews for Child Health Plus A, and creating a seamless transition for children moving between the two plans;

To increase funding for community-based facilitated enrollment by $5 million (currently funded at $17 million).

Flawed Reasoning

However, according to Tarren Bragden, health policy analyst for the Empire Center for New York State Policy, If you look at the statistics cited by the CDF report, the enrollment had less than a one percent change. I think CDF is trying to equate a policy change to produce the results of more children without health insurance, but the facts dont support that.

Bragden said that there are only 11 states that have an uninsured children number lower than New York: Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alabama, Iowa, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

He said, CDF has simply focused on what would be a very dramatic Medicaid expansion, even though N.Y. right now has one of the largest Medicaid programs in the country; only 10 states have a higher percentage of their kids on Medicaid than N.Y.

Bragdon suggested, Instead of following the CDF plan, we need to look at states that have more private health insurance and fewer uninsured, such as Michigan, New Hampshire, and Iowa, and try to replicate that success, rather than just trying to make Medicaid bigger.

The CDF-NY report states that 40 percent of New Yorks children and teens received coverage through Child Health Plus, and, according to both Lawrence and Bragdon, the estimated average annual coverage cost is $2,000 per child.

The State Health Department refused to comment on the matter.