Over 30,000 Uninsured VA Children Set to Lose Safety Net
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March 3, 2010
RICHMOND, Va. - Tough times call for tough measures, in Virginia and other states experiencing economic turmoil. However, according to Jill Hanken, staff attorney for the Virginia Poverty Law Center, the proposed budget from the Virginia House of Delegates makes cuts in all the wrong places.
For example, she says, the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security Plan (FAMIS) stands to lose more than $100 million, a decrease she believes would be devastating to Virginians now served by the program. While lawmakers have said the state will save $37.5 million by tightening FAMIS eligibility requirements, Hanken notes the state would also lose $70 million in federal matching funds allocated for health care services.
"Whenever we can leverage our scarce state dollars to draw down more federal dollars to do something that is as important as health services for low-income people, that should be Number One."
FAMIS provides health insurance to eligible low-income women and children. Hanken says enrollees include 100,000 children, but the proposed cuts will further reduce eligibility. This will severely affect the health of thousands of youngsters and pregnant women in The Commonwealth, she says.
"When uninsured people do not have access to health care services, it really ends up costing everyone. It costs all of us in higher premiums, because people end up using emergency rooms and they don't have the funds to pay for their care."
She adds 65 percent of the program's costs are paid by the federal government; the state pays the remainder. In order to qualify for FAMIS, a family's gross income must be less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The proposed budget cuts would drop that number to 175 percent, meaning a family will have to be poorer in Virginia in order to receive FAMIS assistance than in 48 other states and the District of Columbia.