More on why health reform is important: 89,000 children lose Medicaid in PA

George Hoover, health policy director for our member organization Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, today has a great op-ed in his local paper explaining the important of the health reform law. He tells the story of how a clumsy state policy for enrolling Pennsylvanians in Medicaid resulted in 89,000 children kicked off the rolls:

“Last August, the state Department of Public Welfare began sending out hundreds of thousands of renewal notices to Pennsylvania families receiving Medicaid…allowing these families 10 days to provide documentation to keep their children enrolled in Medicaid. If DPW did not receive and process all requested paperwork within this 10-day deadline, the child was dropped from Medicaid, even if the deadline was missed due to DPW’s own bureaucratic backlogs in processing paperwork.

“This inefficient, poorly planned review process resulted in Medicaid enrollment plummeting by nearly 89,000 children statewide from last August through January.”

Just another reason to support the health reform law, which enforces new eligibility for families in health services like Medicaid. Hoover explains other benefits to the law: More than 1.1 million Pennsylvania children are benefiting from the end of lifetime insurance benefit caps; 65,000 are taking advantage of being able to stay on their family’s health plan until age 26; and children can no longer be denied coverage based on “pre-existing condition.”

Read the whole piece here.