The Board of Supervisor’s were in strong support of a proposal for all children in Santa Barbara County receiving medical coverage. The program would allow families who do not qualify for state assistance, yet are still considered as having a low to middle class income to be eligible for county assisted coverage. If the one million dollar county funded proposed program is approved, it will make Santa Barbara County the first county to make such a move in healthcare. Supervisor Joni Grey, however, felt there were still too many unanswered questions in regards to budgetary planning and wanted more details on claims made at the hearing, that un-insured children are currently being denied medical care at health care facilities whether insured or not.
Presentations and allegations presented to persuade the board included assertions that uninsured children are not receiving medical care and that they are suffering educationally from attending classes while ill or in pain. Supervisor Grey expressed alarming concern of such claims that children were made to suffer by not receiving proper care when needed, and asked health officials if children are being denied treatment when taken to local emergency rooms or to the County Health Dept.
Health officials responded saying that children could not be denied treatment in an emergency situation. They also expressed that chief concerns are a lack of preventive care, rising health care cost for families and unpaid costs to health facilities.
Health Department officials and members of the Healthy Kids program said that the majority of uninsured parents tend to wait until an emergency situation occurs before seeking treatment. They said it is due to rising medical costs and a lack of funds at the time preventative care is needed, causing illnesses or conditions to worsen over time. They presented a hypothetical example of a child having a small cavity that could easily be taken care of, if the child was covered under the proposed plan. They explained that for the uninsured, the cavity would be left unattended until it is largely decayed or has become abscessed by the time treatment is received. They expressed that the child is left to suffer with tooth pain until the affected tooth has been treated. They said that the cost of treatment from late intervention is considerably higher than it would have been if earlier treatment were to take place. Nearly everyone agreed that insurance for all children sounds like a wonderful idea. However, there were those who did not agree with the plan as it is currently being presented.
What’s the Controversy about?
All though most were in support of the proposal, Andy Caldwell of (COLAB) who frequents the Board of Supervisor meetings brought up one concern that had not been addressed in the proposals plan. With the proposal’s budget requests being based on the current residents in the county, Andy told the board, “You can’t control the population”. He went on to ask what would stop people who live in Ventura, Los Angeles, and San Louis Obispo counties from relocating to Santa Barbara County simply to take advantage of the program. He asserted that the one million dollar request for the first year was unrealistic because the possibility of population growth was not included in the budget plans and would result in an additional tax burden to tax payers.
There were several people who questioned where the money would come from and suggestions were made such as taking the money out of the tobacco funds. The board suggested that there are more than enough funds available for the program through county funding. However, there were additional concerns brought to the board from taxpayers in regards to the plan’s proposal in covering children of undocumented families. They express that it would be unfair for legal citizens who pay taxes, to also have to pay for a family who does not, due to being an illegal immigrant. In conclusion, with most of the board being in favor of the proposal, the next evaluation of the plan will be under a budget review by the County