MIChild helping more adults

Source: The Detroit News
By: Kim Kozlowski
Published: April 23, 2007

Program for uninsured kids providing coverage to 65K grown Michiganians.

A public program designed for some of Michigan's 160,000 uninsured children is providing more health coverage for adults than youths.

The federal-state initiative is spending more than three times the amount of money for adult coverage as it does for the purpose of the program, according to figures from the Michigan Department of Community Health.

The $198 million program, known as MIChild, is designed to provide insurance to children whose families don't qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance.

As Cover the Uninsured Week begins today, local health officials are attempting to enroll more uninsured children through numerous enrollment fairs. Several outreach efforts also are in place through United Way's 211 help line, Detroit Public Schools and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

But health advocates say they lack advertising funds, which is why more could be done to market the program to working families.

"We can and we should and we're going to do it," said Doug Halladay, spokesman for the Detroit Wayne County Health Authority, which coordinates Cover the Uninsured Week, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Now in its fifth year, the week highlights the 45 million uninsured Americans, including 9 million children. This year's focus on children comes as Congress debates reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides federal funds that cover 70 percent of MIChild's costs.

Jessica Luther of Royal Oak, a stay-at-home mother, wasn't aware of MIChild until a friend told her about it. Luther and her husband, a carpenter, were shelling out $400 a month for private coverage that required them to pay 20 percent of their health services and didn't cover office visits for their daughters, Isabel, 5, and Sylvie, 10 months.

The costs became so overwhelming that the couple dropped the insurance. A few weeks later, they enrolled their daughters in MIChild, which covers all health care costs, including vision and dental, for a $10 monthly premium.

"It's phenomenal," Luther said. "It's so much better. I am not worried if they have to go to the doctor and how can I juggle the bills this month."

In 2006, MIChild provided insurance for 32,782 children who live in families that are between 150 percent and 200 percent of the poverty level, which is a $30,000 to $37,000 annual income for a family of four.

The cost of covering the children was $44 million.. The remaining $154 million in 2006 was spent on insuring 65,273 adults with annual incomes of 35 percent of the poverty level, or $3,430 a year.

Michigan was like many states and lost some of its federal funds when they weren't spent. Between 2000 and 2003, Michigan lost $323 million that was distributed to other states.

To allow states more flexibility in their funding, the federal government approved projects for states to cover other uninsured populations.

In 2003, Michigan received federal approval to use the funding to cover adults with very low incomes -- $3,049 annually -- so it could spend all of its funding. Eleven other states also use their funding to cover adults.

"We had to agree we would never turn away a child and we don't," said Paul Reinhart, Medicaid director in the Michigan Department of Community Health.

Some leaders say more needs to be done to insure all children.

"Health care should be a right to all Americans and particularly for our most vulnerable, our children," said the Rev. Dr. John Duckworth, pastor of Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church in Westland.

You can reach Kim Kozlowski at (313) 222-2024 or kkozlowski@detnews.com.