Supporters want KidsCare health insurance program restored

PHOENIX — Stymied by the Senate president, supporters of restoring health insurance to the children of the working poor are hoping to apply some very visible public pressure.

At a rally Monday, Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, pointed out that she got the House to approve her legislation on a margin of close to four to one.

But Senate President Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, refused to even assign the measure to a committee for a hearing, even though there would be no cost to the state through at least through 2017.

The time for committee hearings this year has passed. So Cobb and her allies are lobbying to ensure the program, which could serve 30,000 children, is made part of the budget.

So far Biggs has been unmoved, even without an impact on the state budget, at least for now.

“When we say ‘free care,’ we’re not talking free, are we,” he said.

“We’re talking that somebody is paying for that,” said Biggs who is running for Congress. “And it’s the taxpayers.”

The only way for Cobb and supporters to get the program restored now is to make it part of the budget negotiations.

That, however, requires the cooperation of Gov. Doug Ducey. And the governor, who did not include KidsCare in his list of legislative priorities, was noncommittal about supporting it now during the budget talks.

“What we want is to make sure we are investing in our kids, we’re protecting them and we have a structurally balanced budget,” he told Capitol Media Services. “So I’m going to negotiate this budget with the House and the Senate. But I’m not going to negotiate it with you this morning.”

It was that issue of the cost to the state that resulted in lawmakers freezing enrollment in 2010 during the recession. At the time there were 45,000 children in the program from families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but less than twice the federal poverty level.

That figure is between about $27,700 a year and $40,000 for a family of three.

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Now there are fewer than 1,000 children enrolled. And Arizona is the only state without a functioning program.

The result, according to Delphis Richardson, president of the Arizona chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is that Arizona has the third highest rate of uninsured children in the nation.

“Arizona children should not be at a disadvantage because they were born in the state,” said Michael Simoni, president of the Arizona chapter of the March of Dimes.

Cobb, a first-term lawmaker, said it’s important to recognize that the program is aimed at children of the “working poor.”

“They’re not taking entitlements,” she said.

“They’re out there working,” Cobb continued. “And we’re just giving them a leg-up,” she said, allowing those parents to get care for their children so they stay healthy and don’t have to stay home from school.

The concern of Biggs and other foes remains what happens after 2017.

Cobb built a self-destruct mechanism into HB 2309.

It says if there are insufficient funds for the program, the director of the state’s Medicaid program must, after consulting with the governor, stop processing new applications. A separate sections says if federal funds are eliminated, all applications will be halted and the program can be halted in 30 days.

But Biggs has said that misses the point. He said once thousands of children are enrolled, the program has a built-in “constituency” that will lobby to keep it alive, even if there is a cost to state taxpayers. And that, he said, will make it difficult, if not impossible, to ever stop it again.

Dana Naimark, president of the Children’s Action Alliance, essentially confirmed Biggs’ fears.

“You’d better believe we’ll have a constituency for children’s health care in this state,” she said.