Press Coverage Child health program pledged By Timm Herdt Ventura County Star August 30, 2007 SACRAMENTO -- Top state officials on Wednesday vowed that universal health coverage for children will be enacted in California, and assailed President Bush for putting up roadblocks that will make it more difficult to achieve that goal. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who along with New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer sent a joint letter of complaint to the White House, said he was perplexed by the new rules proposed by the Bush administration last week that would make it more difficult for children to qualify for government-subsidized healthcare. "Why would he go after children?" Schwarzenegger asked at a Capitol news conference. "Don't do that. Don't start taking money away from children." The Bush administration last week proposed rules that would require some children to go without insurance for a full year before becoming eligible and mandate that states enroll 95 percent of eligible children from the lower-income categories before raising the financial threshold of eligibility. In their letter, Schwarzenegger and Spitzer said the rules "will set ... state programs back 40 years" and ought to be withdrawn. "This is not a partisan issue at all," Schwarzenegger said, noting that as a Republican he joined with Democrat Spitzer in making an appeal to the White House. The proposed rules come at a time when Bush is locked in a political battle with Congress over its planned expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP. Both houses of Congress have approved bills to broaden the program and seek to fund those changes with an increase in the federal tobacco tax. Bush has threatened a veto if Congress sends him a final version of the bill that retains the expansion. The federal uncertainty comes at a time when the Legislature is depending on expansion of the program -- known in California as "Healthy Families" -- to cover the approximately 763,000 uninsured children in the state. That would largely be accomplished by raising the income-eligibility ceiling from 250 percent of poverty ($51,625 for a family of four) to 300 percent of poverty ($61,950 for a family of four). Eighteen states already allow children from families with incomes above 250 percent of poverty to enroll in children's health programs. Bush's proposed rules are designed to make it much more difficult for states to offer benefits to children of families in that income category. The Healthy Families program, which now covers 916,000 children in California, has allowed the state to dramatically reduce the number of uninsured children since it was implemented in 1998. Only about 7 percent of California children remain uninsured. Children's health advocates Wednesday pushed for action that would allow California to guarantee all children have health insurance. Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, called universal coverage for children "the most important priority" of the health reforms now being debated by lawmakers. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, pledged lawmakers will deliver that and more. "Agreeing to insure all kids is the best starting place for all of us," he said. "It's not the end game, but a starting point." Nuñez noted he had no health insurance as a child. "I know that reality," he said, "and I want it to be nonexistent to the children of this state." Chris Perry, executive director of the state's First 5 Commission, announced her agency would make a one-time contribution of $20 million next year to help the state expand children's health insurance. Lempert said that contribution is significant because the estimated first-year cost to the state is $100 million. It means the state can act "if we can cobble together $80 million" -- a relatively small amount from a general fund of more than $100 billion.