ICHIA (the Immigrant Children’s Health Insurance Act)—one of UHPP’s priority issues–has hit an unfortunate roadblock in the Utah Legislature.  It appears as though this issue (SB111) will not be up for formal debate this year.  ICHIA would eliminate the 5-year waiting period for legal resident children to qualify for Medicaid and CHIP.  All children deserve health care.  They shouldn’t have to wait 5 years to get it.

That said: this bill is not dead!  Let’s seize this opportunity to learn what we can do now to help this bill move forward in the future.  The more allies ICHIA has the better chance it will move forward.  We are working for the day that all kids have health coverage, and we will not give up!

Read more about ICHIA here.

If you are interested in being an ally in an emerging “covering all Utah kids” campaign, please call Randal at (tambien en Español) 801-433-2299, or send an email to randal@healthpolicyproject.org.

TODAY, Monday afternoon (4:10 PM in Senate HHS Standing Committee, room 250 State Capitol), Sen. Buttars and his colleagues will be voting once again on SB 44 Health Amendments for Legal Immigrant Children (Sen. Robles), the bill that keeps on fighting because we cannot pass on an opportunity to cover otherwise uninsured kids.

Sen. B. has agreed to change his vote to YES to give this bill what it deserves: a hearing on the Senate floor.  His support may be shaky, however (long story for another day), so we need you to call or email him and THANK HIM for ‘airlifting’ this bill to the Senate floor. Remind him these are legal kids playing by the rules, that it’s not their fault that they don’t have access to health insurance coverage.

Call or email Sen. Buttars…
Senate: (801) 538-1035 (ask to be connected)
Cell: (801) 209-7572  (leave a message if you need to with a succinct message, as above)
Email: dcbuttars@utahsenate.org

Please email Sen. Stuart Adams as well. He has expressed sympathy for this initiative in the past, but is not comfortable with the fiscal note. He might feel better supporting SB44 knowing it will not be implemented until 2012.

Call Sen. Adams TODAY using the Senate’s main number: (801) 538-1035. Ask to be connected to him.
Or send email to: sadams@utahsenate.org

Suggested Talking Points for SB44, 1^st Substitute

• The amended bill does not implement SB44 until fiscal year 2012 and uses General Funds.
• Based on the points below, this bill clearly merits consideration on the Senate floor.

• SB44 is intended as a key step in our health system reforms.  One of the goals of reform is to “optimize public programs”: if there is a group that is not likely to find coverage in private market, we get them covered as quickly as possible. Kids fit these criteria even better because they are so cheap to cover.
• The federal government will pay more than 81 cents on every dollar for this modest initiative. The federal match rate for all children and some pregnant women covered under this new option will be the higher federal CHIP match rate for each state.
• These immigrant families are playing by the rules!

• This infusion of federal dollars has a powerful impact on Utah’s economy, which could help Utah recover more quickly from the recession.
• Timely health care coverage can prevent or treat conditions that can affect a child’s long-term prospects for a healthy, productive life.
• SB44 will minimize the considerable cost shifting that occurs for his population.  Timely coverage can mean the difference between preventing or treating conditions that can affect a child’s long-term prospects for a healthy life.
• Covering all children improves kids’ health, their performance in school, and their long term stability.

As most of you know, our SB44 (Health Care Amendments for Legal Immigrant Children by Sen. Robles) suffered a possibly fatal setback last week. It was Sen. Buttars who dealt the possibly fatal blow by switching his vote after committing to vote with us. You should know that the senators received 100′s of anti-immigrant calls about this—and very few calls and emails from our side. This, apparently, is what switched him over, though he says his main concern is with the fiscal note and growing government at a time like this.

We’d like to take a day or 2 to cool off and keep an eye out for further opportunity to fund this critical initiative to cover the uninsured. We should know where we really stand later today when the revised revenue projections are released. If these are worse than anticipated, we should probably call it quits. If they are better, we will try to revive SB44 one more time.  Stay tuned for further action steps.  In the meantime, please think about how we are going to match the forces of fear and reaction, as they are gathering unprecedented new momentum. We must pace ourselves for the difficult fights ahead and find a way to build a little advocacy (a phone call, an email, an encouragement to take action through our personal and professional networks) into each day.

Health Care Amendments for Legal Immigrant Children (SB44) provides affordable health care coverage to legal permanent resident children, lifting the 5-year waiting period currently in place.  Help us build support for this legislation by endorsing a sign-on letter as an ORGANIZATION or INDIVIDUAL.

Sign-on in support of SB44 TODAY by emailing SB44@healthpolicyproject.org by Monday 2/8 at 5:00 PM. You can read the full endorsement letter on our website here.

This legislation is about providing coverage to otherwise uninsured children.  The state will receive a generous federal match ($4 federal dollars for every $1 the state invests) through the Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA).  Thus, the federal government will cover 80% of the total cost. In addition, including these children in Medicaid/CHIP achieves one of the key goals of state health reform: optimizing public programs when they are the most cost-effective coverage option.

Last session, both and House and Senate passed almost the exactly same bill but time ran out before funding could allocated.  We believe the Legislature needs to follow-through with their intention to provide coverage to these children.

READ OUR UPDATED ISSUE BRIEF ON SB44 HERE

SB44 will be heard in committee tomorrow, TUESDAY Feb. 9th at 8:00 AM in Committee Room 250 of the Capitol.  It is first on the agenda, so please arrive by 7:30 AM.   You can listen to the committee hearing online at www.le.utah.gov

Today at 2:00 pm in room 30 of the House Building the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee will hear SB44 (Sen. Luz Robles), a top priority for UHPP, MHN, and a growing list of partners. A provision of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (signed into law on February 4, 2009), the Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA) gives states the option to lift the 5-year waiting period on Medicaid and CHIP eligibility for legal permanent resident children.  SB 44 implements the new option in Utah, advancing one of the key goals of state health care reform while taking some of the pressure off of Utah’s increasingly fragile health care safety net.

Please note: the purpose of today’s hearing is simply to learn about funding requests. The committee will not be taking public testimony, but you should still show up to express support and listen to the debate. The committee’s feedback will be helpful as we map out next steps on the campaign.

Read UHPP’s updated issue brief here.