Poll: Eight Out of Ten Georgia Voters Want Health Care for Kids

8/28/2007

ATLANTA (Aug. 28, 2007) —— About eight out of 10 Georgians from a broad cross section believe that all children should have access to health coverage, according to a recent statewide survey done by advocacy organization Voices for Georgia’s Children.

The 80 percent figure reflects attitudes of registered voters who rated as “high” or “very high” the priority of making sure children have what they need to stay healthy.  This response was uniform among Georgia Democrat, Republican and independent voters.

A related question pertaining to recent events with the state’s PeachCare health insurance program asked for voters’ opinions on its financial future.  Seventy-six percent said Georgia should continue the program and pay extra until the federal government renews its portion of the funding.

Voices for Georgia’s Children policy director Lauren Waits noted that the survey results were in line with those from other recent state and national surveys.

“It’s clear that most Georgia voters want children to have access to health coverage.  Georgia, in particular, does a great job in covering kids now and extending it to those who are uninsured is an entirely curable problem,” she said.

The findings released today come from a scientific survey conducted on behalf of Atlanta-based Voices.  Survey data were collected among 600 randomly selected registered voters with an overall margin of sampling error of ±3.2%.  Survey participants were asked to prioritize a number of child-related issues from “low” to “very high.” 

Georgia has been one of the more successful states in implementing the popular federal/state partnership States Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), with nearly 300,000 children enrolled through its PeachCare for Kids program.  About 960,000 children have health insurance through SCHIP, Medicaid and private insurance, accounting for about 87 percent of all children.  That number would increase to 96 percent if all Medicaid/PeachCare eligible children were insured under current state guidelines.

Congress is currently working on legislation to broaden SCHIP in order to cover more children from lower-income working families with affordable health insurance. PeachCare For Kids had experienced a temporary funding shortfall in early 2007, forcing the state’s Department of Community Health to freeze enrollment.  The freeze was lifted in June but enrollment has since been capped to under 300,000 children.

Voices executive director Pat Willis said that the survey was undertaken to gauge public sentiment on a host of children’s issues.

“As an indicator for children’s health, a clear majority of Georgians believe as the rest of the country does that all children should have health coverage.  They understand that the investments we’ve made in children’s health are paying off.”