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More children to qualify for health insurance

By Jared Felkins
The Times-Journal

Published September 14, 2009

Many middle-class DeKalb County children will qualify for publicly funded health insurance starting Oct. 1 because the Legislature is expanding eligibility to cover families of four making up to $66,150 annually.

“For so many middle-income families, it never entered their minds they would be eligible for a public program,” Cathy Caldwell, who directs the ALL Kids health insurance program for the state Department of Public Health.

The expansion of ALL Kids is the result of two votes:

• Congress decided in February to raise the federal tobacco tax to provide more money for children’s health insurance programs.

• The Alabama Legislature overrode Gov. Bob Riley’s veto of the state General Fund budget, which provided more state funding to expand the insurance program.

State Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, said he was in support of the expansion.

“We deemed it important with so many people losing their jobs and their insurance,” Barron said. “We had to override the governor’s veto to do it. I think it’s very important that youngsters have health care so they can learn in school and learn at their maximum. It didn’t cost very much state money for us to do this. A family of four making up to $66,000, and the first thing you know someone loses their job, it’s a bad situation. We wanted to help these children.”

In Alabama, the state Medicaid program covers children from families making below the federal poverty level. ALL Kids has provided government subsidized insurance to children from families making between the poverty line and twice the poverty line, provided they aren’t covered by another insurance plan.

On Oct. 1, the level of coverage for ALL Kids goes to triple the poverty level.

That means the annual income limit for a family of two will go from $29,140 to $43,710. For a family of three, it will increase from $36,620 to $54,930. And for a family of four, it will go from $44,100 to $66,150.

According to officials with the DeKalb County Economic Development Authority, the median household income in DeKalb is $33,074. Currently about 5,760 households earn less than $15,000; 4,237 households earn between $15,000-$24,999; and 3,893 households earn between $25,000-$34,999. That’s 13,889 households out of 26,279 or about half that make less than $35,000 annually. It’s not known how many of those households include children.

Caldwell said as of July, there were 1,153 children in DeKalb County enrolled in ALL Kids.

Caldwell estimates 10,000 children under 19 statewide will be added to the ALL Kids rolls in the new fiscal year.

Many will be from homes making more than the state’s median household income, which was $40,596 in 2007. That’s why the health department is trying to educate doctors, school nurses and others about the change so they can recommend it to parents. But Caldwell knows everyone won’t be reached.

“There are 78,000 uninsured children currently eligible for Medicaid or ALL Kids who are not enrolled. I’m unsure what the barriers are,” she said.

Parents pay a nominal amount for their children to participate in ALL Kids. Parents who get into the program because of the expansion will pay $100 annually per child, with a maximum of $300 per family regardless of the number of children.

Parents can start applying now by using the department’s Web site (http://www.adph.org), calling a toll-free number (888-373-5437), or picking up an application at a county health department or a doctor’s office.

According to the National Academy for State Health Policy in Washington, 13 states have gone to triple the poverty level or higher, and nine states, including Alabama, have decided to go to that level at a future date.

Catherine Hess, the academy’s senior program director, said Alabama “is definitely among the leading states” in seeking to provide coverage to children. She said that was proven earlier this year when Alabama was one of eight states selected for private grants to maximize children’s enrollment in Medicaid and ALL Kids.

Alabama’s ALL Kids program got $32.5 million in state funds for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The state money, plus matching federal money, covers nearly 70,000 children.

The new budget starting Oct. 1 boosts state funding to $40.5 million. The increase will bring in nearly $32 million in extra federal funding.

Riley vetoed the budget because he wanted the prison system to get money the Legislature had allocated for the health insurance expansion and for pet projects in legislators’ districts.

State Rep. Todd Greeson, R-Ider, said the decision was an easy one for him.

“We’ve opened it up for more children to get health care,” Greeson said. “[Riley] wanted to put more funding in prisons, and we wanted to put more money in children’s health care. I voted for children’s health care and prioritized that above putting more funding in prisons.”

– The Associated Press contributed to this report

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