We Believe Every Child Should HaveAccess To Quality Health Care Coverage

 It protects all of our children.

Children without health coverage are in our schools and part of our communities When they get sick, it puts all of our children at risk of also getting sick.

Kids with health coverage are more likely to get the care they need to ensure healthy development, including preventive care, immunizations and basic check-ups all of which helps identify or prevent problems before they get serious and more costly. In turn, this helps reduce costs on the entire system. For example:

• Every dollar spent on childhood immunizations will save $13 down the road
• Providing health coverage to one California child costs approximately $100 a month. By comparison, the average emergency room visit for children is almost $435,and uninsured children are nearly eight times less likely than insured children to have a regular source of care.

Keeping kids healthy makes them better students and more productive workers and members of society

Covering all children is good for public health

Public health is affected by ill and untreated children in our communities and schools. With increasing numbers of emerging and reemerging diseases, such as whooping cough, asthma and tuberculosis, the best way to safeguard everyone’s health is to ensure the health of all children.

• The health status of previously uninsured California children improved by 25% after being enrolled in Healthy Families for one year.
• Only six percent of insured children had a health need that was unmet over the course of a year, as compared to more than 20 percent of uninsured children

Healthy Kids are good for our economy and working families.

By enrolling children in public insurance, California gains millions in matching federal dollars that flow into local economies.These funds create a multiplier effect, strengthening our safety net providers, keeping jobs more secure in the health care industry and ultimately helping businesses and families build our local economies.

Many hard-working families make too much money to qualify for MediCal or Healthy Families, but not enough to pay for health insurance for their children

• 71% of uninsured kids are in families where the head of household works full time all year

All children should have access to care – not just the privileged or select few

All children should have a right to a healthy life and a healthy start, not just those who meet certain economic, demographic or other conditions. Just as the public has determined all children have a right to education, there is a moral responsibility to care for the most vulnerable our children being at the top of the list

Countless studies and plain common sense tell us that children with health insurance are healthier, do better in school, and lead better, more productive lives. Health insurance is important to guarantee access to adequate preventive health are during the critical period of a child’s growth. When health problems go undiagnosed, they can lead to developmental delays and lifelong impairments