Action Alert: April 19, 2007 - Call your legislator to preserve PeachCare

ACTION ALERT!
With just 2 more legislative days left, your continued actions on behalf of children’s health are essential!

HB 340, which would cut PeachCare eligibility levels and benefits and result in more uninsured children in Georgia has passed the House and Senate in different forms.  It still has a chance of final passage- and we need your help to ensure its defeat!

On Tuesday, the Senate passed its version of the bill.  The Senate’s version contains positive steps toward ensuring PeachCare continues to provide access to healthcare for the children of working families:

• The substitute language for HB 340 moves current PeachCare enrollees under 125% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) in to Medicaid, allowing Georgia to maximize federal matching dollars while ensuring coverage for the neediest of the working poor.
• The substitute bill’s “PeachCare Extended Program” would allow families at incomes above current PeachCare levels to buy into coverage for their children.  Such a plan would make health insurance coverage accessible to children whose families cannot afford the price of insurance offered in the private market.  If premiums were affordable and benefits were comprehensive under this new program, the extension of this program from PeachCare’s current eligibility level of 235% FPL to 250% could benefit thousands of additional children.

Despite these important elements, Voices for Georgia’s Children cannot endorse the either the House or Senate version of HB 340 because they cut eligibility for PeachCare, cut benefits and are likely to reduce the number of insured children.

Children need health coverage to thrive, whether their parents can afford it or not.  A significant number of Georgia’s lower income working families—faced with dire choices of which essential bills to pay—would be unable to afford increased health insurance premiums and copayments imposed by both versions of HB 340.  But Georgia’s children would pay the real, personal cost of these policies in undiagnosed conditions and poorer health.

Passage of HB 340 in either form would lead to increased numbers of uninsured children in Georgia.  Georgia’s children would be more likely to become or remain disconnected from health care that keeps them well and addresses their health needs in a timely manner, and they would be more likely to miss school or suffer from untreated ailments.  

Please call your Senator and Representative today and ask them to protect children’s health in Georgia by preserving the PeachCare program.  Thank them for their budget commitment to PeachCare; remind them that we expect Congress to reauthorize the program at current or greater funding levels, and urge them to NOT to pass HB 340.