Opinion

Healthy kids
State initiative can kick-start broad review of health-care ills

Editorial

On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to propose that every child in California be guaranteed access to health care.

The idea is likely to be served up without many specifics. Whether this ambitious idea can be transformed into a common-sense program will depend on the willingness of the governor and the Legislature to work through formidable obstacles. How much will it cost? Where will the state find the money?

Still, Californians should be cheered by the prospect of their Republican governor declaring that health care rests at the top of his agenda for the new year. It is not acceptable that 800,000 children are uninsured.

It is not smart either. Kids denied access to basic health care and immunization programs will eventually need emergency services that will be far more costly. In fact, the governor is proposing to buy health insurance for children with money now spent to treat the uninsured.

A new Field Poll shows that 80 percent of state voters believe government should guarantee that every resident has access to affordable health care. This doesn't mean Californians agree on how this job will be accomplished.

A state facing budget deficits will need to make hard choices before it can commit to additional money for health care. There will be questions, too, about the most efficient way to deliver these services.

A good place to start this conversation might be a proposal to allow the "working poor" to enroll their children in the Healthy Families program. These are people who make just enough money not to qualify for existing programs and not enough to purchase health insurance.

A 2005 proposal modeled along these lines carried a price tag of $300 million annually. That's a lot of money, but it's worth remembering that the 2007-2008 state budget will top $105 billion. In a budget that large, surely there is something less important than securing health care for 800,000 children.