California’s health care shift affects millions of children

California has saved millions of children from losing their health insurance now that legislation is in place to protect children under the age of five who participate in the state’s Medicaid program.

Millions of Americans saw their health insurance taken away when pandemic-era rules guaranteeing continued Medicaid coverage ended, and that included millions of children in California alone.

Many of these patients lost medical care due to procedural errors, such as missing a re-apply deadline or having an incorrect address on file.

But now California has secured funding to protect the state’s Medicaid program, or Medi-Cal, for children ages zero to five.

Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner pushed to remove the additional barriers these children on Medicaid face to continue receiving health coverage. Currently, 92 percent of those who were denied coverage since continuous enrollment ended lost their health care due to procedural errors, and one-third of them are children.

“Thousands of children in California are at risk of losing their enrollment due to administrative errors. Parents take their children to medical appointments only to find out they are no longer covered by Medi-Cal. These are families who likely have other challenges in their lives and I am glad that as a state we are ensuring they have access to health care,” Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner said in a statement.

According to Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, some of the largest medical bills families are likely to face occur during the first five years of a child’s life and can often be recurring expenses.

“Ensuring that California Medicaid recipients have access to support for birth to age five is critical not only to the medical stability of these families, but also to their financial security,” Beene said. Newsweek Magazine.

“Having coverage makes these significant and often substantial expenses more manageable to bear, and in our current inflated consumer market, every dollar that can be saved on medical expenses could mean the difference between these families being able to afford essential everyday items or not.”

Chris Fong, Medicare specialist and CEO of Smile Insurance Group, said securing funding for health care at these ages will ensure children receive ongoing, unconditional care during some of their most formative years.

“This safety net ensures that these children can continue to receive the vaccines, checkups and sick visits they need,” Fong said. Week of news“History tells us that lack of Medi-Cal coverage can mean the difference between life and death.”

In the 19th century, infant mortality before age 5 was more than 400 deaths per 1,000 children, Fong said. But once we saw advances in modern medicine and child health care, there has been significant progress, especially since Medicaid went into effect in 1965.

“Currently, the death rate for children under 5 is about 7 per 1,000,” Fong said. “It’s more of a national crisis that’s been exacerbated by the termination of Medicaid coverage. People didn’t have to worry about losing Medi-Cal because of paperwork during the pandemic years, which was important for many reasons.

“But the elimination of Medicaid has caused people across the country to lose their ever-important Medicaid coverage.”

Fong added that California has one of the most complex Medicaid and social programs of most states, which contributes to administrative errors that lead to residents losing their insurance.

“The complexity of the programs that applicants can access causes delays and backlogs in the approval process,” Fong said. “This problem can be solved in two ways: hiring more staff or simplifying the approval process.”