Hawaii's Voice for Healthcare

Some skeptics have asked why Hawaii should invest in universal health insurance coverage for children.

My answer is this: 1) it is the responsible and compassionate thing to do for our children, and 2) it is a good investment.

We know that children with healthcare coverage have better health outcomes, do better in school, and ultimately become more productive members of society requiring LESS state resources.

And don't forget, uninsured individuals place a financial burden on our already ailing hospital system.

In short, covering Hawaii's children is the right thing to do.

Historically Hawaii has done a better job providing affordable health insurance to it's people than virtually any other state, primarily because the Prepaid Health Act of 1974 mandates that our employers provide health coverage for any workers who work more than half-time. Today, approximately 10% of Hawaii residents are uninsured, most of whom are part-time workers and younger individuals.

The uninsured rates for children has hovered between 3% and 5% for the past several years. In an attempt to push that number to 0%, a coalition of stakeholders came together over the last 3 years to come up with a plan to cover every child in the state.

The key players in this attempt at universal coverage for children have been Hawaii Covering Kids, the State Legislature, the Department of Human Services/Governor's office, the Hawaii Primary Care Association and HMSA. Many other committed individuals have aided in this mission.

In 2006 the Keiki Care law was passed to provide healthcare coverage for every child in Hawaii. Without getting into too much detail, Keiki Care did three important things;

1. It made Quest (Medicaid) health insurance available for free to every child in the state whose family was at or below 300% of the federal poverty level. Specifically, a family of 4 making $73,000 or less in Hawaii was guaranteed gold standard coverage for free for their children. Only 10 other states are this progressive.
    
2. Keiki Care guaranteed coverage for all legal immigrant children,
    
3. The Keiki Care plan was put into place as a 50:50 public/private partnership between the State and HMSA to provide free insurance to any other child who didn't qualify for the other options mentioned. This program ultimately covered 2000 children.

At this point, every child in the state had access to health coverage - through Quest, Keiki Care or employer programs.

Then the global recession hit and in spite of maintaining our two steps forward (going to 300% of federal poverty and covering legal immigrants) - we had to take one step back when the Administration was forced to cut the Keiki Care program temporarily from the budget. This cost was $50,000 per month and was matched by HMSA.

Senator Chun-Oakland and I will continue to convene the key stakeholders every 6 weeks to continue our pursuit of universal coverage for children in Hawaii.

We are presently reaching out to the philanthropic community for $600,000 annually to restore Keiki Care, essentially the final piece of the puzzle. And we continue to rely on the extraordinary efforts of Hawaii Covering Kids, DHS and the Primary Care Association which have kept Hawaii in the top group of states where covering kids with health insurance is concerned.

All of the stakeholders continue to agree that every child needs and deserves health insurance in Hawaii.

Please contact my office if you wish to join us in this mission.