What won’t we do for our children?
Rocio is a mother of two. She is originally from Mexico and has lived in the U.S. with a green card for almost five years. Her husband is a migrant worker in Lake County and Rocio and her children recently moved to Florida to be reunited with him. Although Rocio wanted to stay in Mexico in the first place, she chose to support her son’s dream to learn English and her family’s desire to be together.
After five years of being in the U.S. as a legal resident, Rocio will finally be able to get health coverage for her children.
Why? Because Florida’s leaders have decided legal residents must wait five full years before being eligible for Medicaid or KidCare (Florida’s CHIP plan). This leaves Florida far behind the curve on equitable access to children’s health coverage. Children who are uninsured miss more school while healthy kids do better in school and come to school ready to learn. Twenty-six other states, including Texas and North Carolina, have already eliminated this unwise waiting period for legally residing immigrant children. Florida’s children cannot wait!
Since Rocio’s children had no health coverage, something as simple as getting a medical exam for school entrance was an ordeal for Rocio and her son. A visit to an urgent care facility was the only way for her to get documentation of health for school registration. A medical form is simple, the other scenarios of having no access to coverage could be far more dire. The underlying stress of never knowing when your child will fall ill is one common to all families, but is especially hard on the families affected by this waiting period. Living with the knowledge that, when your children do get sick, you will have no access to medical care is terrifying.
In Mexico, Rocio had health insurance. “It’s a basic need,” she explained, clearly frustrated with the trivial five-year waiting period placed on her children to gain access to KidCare, Florida’s health insurance program for low income children.
Rocio’s family is close to the end of their waiting period. And even though she is obviously shy about speaking out about her family’s situation, she is firm in her desire to help others experiencing the same struggle. “If my story can help another family, I need to tell it,” she said. Her daughter, 16, summed up the waiting period succinctly, “Imagine what can happen in 5 years.”
Right now, lawmakers are considering whether or not to abolish this five year waiting period. We must speak out, and join our voices with Rocio’s voice, in order to help those affected by this law.
Tell your legislators not to make kids wait for health coverage. Sign our petition now: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/fl_kidcare/
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Njeri and her husband Darryl, started their own business after the shuttle program ended and investigated a group plan under their business but found it cost prohibitive. “We were sinking every penny we had into the business and our health care expenses. We couldn’t see potentially having to cover employees’ health insurance as well when we could barely take care of ourselves.” They drained their savings accounts paying for health care costs while covered by COBRA for 19 months. They then took a withdrawal from their 401k to make ends meet. Njeri was strategically stretching out her regular doctor’s visits from two months to three, taking medication every other day instead of twice a day, just trying to hold out until the Affordable Care Act would be available. “I haven’t been to the doctor at all since January of this year. I just keep hoping nothing major happens again while I’m uninsured, but it wouldn’t be the first time.” When Njeri gave birth to her son in 1995 she was a married college student living in poverty covered by Medicaid until her 6 weeks postpartum check up. But when she had to have emergency surgery five months later she had no insurance coverage. “I’m still paying for those medical bills.”
Njeri will be looking to the Health Insurance Marketplace to evaluate health insurance options for her and her husband, but potentially for the employees of their small business. Njeri is in contact with the local navigator in her area and will soon be evaluating affordable health care options.
by ]]>After Moore’s aorta ruptured while he was stocking shelves at his restaurant job, he was unable to work. After three years, he was awarded disability compensation. While the family considered this good news, they soon learned they had another problem. The amount of his disability award was just enough to cause Aaron to become ineligible for health coverage under Medicaid.
Since then, the family has been working to get Aaron approved for medical coverage under the Florida KidCare state insurance plan. The cost of the asthma medication, $190 per month, is out of reach for the family, causing added difficulty during allergy season.
“We applied online for Florida KidCare and sent in all the paperwork,” explains Moore. “I’m hoping we’re getting close. But it’s frustrating when they ask you for the same information over and over.”
“Paying out-of-pocket for doctor visits is very expensive for us because our son is autistic so he can only be seen only by people who know how to work with him. It costs us $180 to get his teeth cleaned.”
Moore tends to his own health conditions as well. “I spent two weeks in the Intensive Care Unit after my heart attack. When I got back on my feet after that, I never was able to work the number of hours I had been working,” says Moore. “I didn’t have health insurance and ended up bankrupt when they handed me an $80,000 dollar bill.”
Moore’s list of health diagnoses now include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. “I went from working sixty hours a week to not being able to do much but take care of my wife and son. My wife has her own health problems. She recently had to quit her part-time job at JoAnn’s Fabrics because it was costing more to have the job than it was worth.”
“Right now I just want to get my son back on his medications,” Moore says. “We’re barely surviving.”
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New America Media, News Report, Anthony Advincula, Posted: Apr 10, 2013
Image: Florida resident Irina Flores-Montalban is on a five-year waitlist to receive subsidized medical care for her ailing son.
MIAMI — About seven months after they moved to Florida, Irina Flores-Montalban found out that her 11-year-old son, Jose, had a blood clot in his heart and needed an operation. Without health insurance, she was advised to enroll him in the state’s Medicaid program in order to get immediate treatment.
But her situation became more dire when the 38-year-old Sarasota mother was told that Jose — as well as his two siblings — was not qualified. Although they have a green card, the family did not meet the state’s five-year residency requirement.
“I didn’t know that every state is different,” Montalban, an Ecuadorian immigrant, said in Spanish. “In New York, where we used to live, they just asked me to fill out the form and soon I got the medical cards in the mail.”
Desperate, she asked one of her children to go online and look for a cardiologist. At the time, Jose had already been experiencing frequent nosebleeds. “I was getting frustrated but [I was] determined to get my son treated. I was willing to pay the consultation fees,” Montalban said.
When they arrived at the doctor’s office, the doctor informed her that Jose had a congenital heart condition and was like “a ticking time bomb.” Because he needed to have an operation right away, the doctor’s aide helped put Jose in an emergency care program, but the post-operation medical bills were not covered.
In Florida, lawful immigrants are eligible for public benefits such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) only if they have been residing in the United States for five years. Under the 1998 welfare reform law — which introduced restrictions for federal income-based benefits related to immigration status and length of U.S. residency — 22 other states, including Washington, D.C. enforce the same eligibility requirement.
Confusion among immigrants limited in their English ability and unfamiliar with the nation’s health care system is common.
“It’s just not right,” said Diana Ragbeer, director of public policy and communications at the Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade County. “We’re not even talking here about undocumented adults; we’re talking about lawful children.”
Filling the Coverage Gap
In Florida, the law impacts somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 immigrant children across the state, according to a Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy (FCFEC) report. Health care advocates there say getting rid of the five-year waiting period would go a long way toward closing that gap.
“The only way to [cover these children] is for the state to lift the five-year ban,” said Nicholas Duran, health care coordinator for the non-partisan Children’s Movement of Florida, which works to expand coverage for children in the state. “Even Obama’s Affordable Care Act won’t change or impact the ban.”
Since 2009, with passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act(CHIPRA), states have had the option of extending eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP to all lawful immigrant children residing in the United States, with no waiting period.
Florida, however, has yet to change any provisions in its law.
Legislation to lift the ban was introduced last year. The bill, known as the Flordia Kidcare Program (SB 704), is currently being considered by the state legislature. Opponents of the bill say it will lead to increased state spending and that it aims to include undocumented immigrant children, charges that supporters roundly dismiss.
“It is important to note that SB 704 does not seek to open up eligibility for undocumented immigrant children or those who are temporarily residing in the country,” Duran said. “And it [SB 704] also took into account the enhanced federal matching dollars” that would come from CHIPRA if the state does away with the waiting period.
The maximum cost to the state of extending coverage to all legal immigrant children, the FCFEC findings also showed, would be $17.6 million. Most of this budget is already available, supporters of SB 1294 contend, as it would use unspent state funds already earmarked for children’s coverage.
They add that with the federal government’s 71 percent funding increase for Florida’s CHIP program, an additional $3.8 million will flow into the state.
Choosing One Among Her Children
After separating from her husband, Montalban and her three young children – Margarita (17), Emilio (9) and Jose – moved from New York to Florida to start a new life. Her brother bought a house in Sarasota, and asked her to take care of the house and have their mother live with them.
It was an opportunity for her to save rent and, at the same time, her kids would be closer to their grandmother, she said.
Montalban works part-time at the clothing retailer Forever 21 and earns about $600 a month, enough to cover food costs and other basic needs. Several days a week she attends an ESL class at a local community center.
But that routine was upended the day she registered Jose for school. When he took the required physical exam, nurses discovered that his blood pressure was well above normal. They later learned of clots in his aorta. His condition is congenital, Montalban said, meaning he may need a cardiologist for the rest of his life.
Aware that her kids were ineligible for Medicare, she found herself facing a painful dilemma: choosing which of them to insure.
In retrospect, the choice was clear.
“I had no choice but to get health insurance only for Jose. I pay $141 a month for his insurance. I would not be able to afford insuring my other children, so I pray that they won’t have the same health problems.”
Montalban then added that passage of SB 704 would be “more than a blessing” for her and her children. “If they qualify for Kidcare, I’ll only be paying $20 a month to cover their health insurance,” she said. “I know that there are a lot of people who are in my situation.”
Liz Gonzalez of New America Media in San Francisco, CA and Ryan Morris of Florida CHAIN in Tampa, FL contributed to this report.
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