Health care for kids – The Register-Guard | Futurist Transhuman News Blog

The Cover All Kids bill now before the Oregon Legislature has worthy goals, but its likely to face strong opposition from many voters.

House Bill 2726 would ensure that all kids have access to health care as a basic human right. Currently, an estimated 17,600 children about 2 percent of children in the state arent covered for injuries, even serious ones; illnesses, including communicable ones; or preventive care.

The bill is already facing opposition on two fronts: 1) The children targeted by the Cover All Kids bill are currently uninsured because they are not legal residents. 2) This expansion of health care benefits would come at an estimated cost of $55 million over the next two years at a time when Oregon is facing a $1.8 billion budget gap.

Its hard to imagine that any Oregonian would walk by a suffering child without wanting to help or would demand to first see proof of legal residency.

But most voters arent being faced with an actual child, only the abstract idea of illegal children receiving free insurance through the Oregon Health Plan, the states version of Medicaid. To make it worse, the state would have to cover the full cost of insuring these children, as opposed to the rest of Oregons 1 million Medicaid recipients, whose health-care costs are mostly paid by the federal government.

Gov. Kate Brown told the House Committee on Health Care on Monday that money from the general fund already has been allocated for this purpose. Shes now going to have to convince legislators and voters that this is the best use for the money.

It helps that the bill has bipartisan support, but that doesnt mean its a slam dunk.

The bill and its counterpart Senate Bill 558 have been tagged with emergency clauses, which means that if they pass theyll go into effect immediately, instead of 90 days after the session ends, and cant be referred to voters.

But if voters already annoyed by the Legislatures abuse of emergency clauses in the last session are upset enough about HB 2726 and SB 558, they can still act to repeal them if they are passed. This would have to be done by forcing an initiative vote not a quick and easy process, but not an impossible one.

And voters in the past have said no to some measures that would aid illegal immigrants, such as one to allow them to have Oregon drivers licenses.

Supporters of the expansion of health care to undocumented children need to think about how to make their case to the voters by appealing not just to their emotions, but to logic and self-interest.

They need to talk about the larger cost both financial and to public health of not providing health care to almost 18,000 children. This includes preventing and treating communicable illnesses and providing care before a health issue worsens and costs more to treat or repair. Coverage also reduces the number of people who rely on emergency rooms for their care or who are unable to pay medical bills, both of which increase overall health-care costs.

Some opponents of the bills objected to them on the grounds that providing health care to children will increase illegal immigration. In reality, the majority or illegal immigrants to the United States are working-age adults, with almost two-thirds ages 25 to 44, according to procon.org, a nonprofit research organization. And illegal immigration from Mexico, the largest single source of illegal immigration to Oregon, has declined as Mexicos economy has improved, falling to a near-historic low in 2015.

If Oregonians want to decrease illegal immigration, their best option is to lobby their representatives in Washington, D.C., to maintain strong trade relations with Mexico not withhold health care from children. That hurts, not helps, the state.