Confusion over health insurance leaves children suffering

March 18, 2006, 1:22AM
Confusion over health insurance leaves children suffering
Some mistakenly cut from the rolls as state makes program changes


By POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Three-year-old Ryla Woodard spent a weekend in the hospital earlier this year when she broke out in a rash, her fever spiked to 103 and doctors diagnosed her with mononucleosis.

Just days later she lost her government-sponsored health coverage, and her family can't afford a second follow-up blood test to see if she's still infected with the virus that can cause fatigue and swelling, or even rupturing, of the spleen.

"She's complaining of a sore throat. It lingers in your system a while," said Ryla's mother, Traci Woodard, from the East Texas town of Orange. "Today I cannot take her anywhere to see if she still tests positive for mono because I have no health insurance. I'm hitting walls and locked doors."

The Woodards aren't the only family complaining about confusion in the Children's Health Insurance Program as enrollments nose-dived the past three months with new rules and a new company screening applications.

With Ryla's coverage mistakenly cut, her mother said Galveston County, two hours away, is the closest place to qualify for indigent health care.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3732046.html

benefits of all sorts for years. The new privately-operated call centers do several things: gives the state plausible deniability when thousands are denied coverage by the "new" people; shuffles millions into cronies' pockets (Accenture ain't exactly a donor to Democratic Party nominees); eliminates face to face contact with the bureaucracy, making denial even easier; restricts access to those with phones or with the desire to stand outside on a pay phone literally for hours.

And if you think that's neat, wait till the special education session in April, when huge property tax breaks will be handed to oil companies and funding cut by billions to public education. If you think Texas education's a miracle (If you got an education in Texas, it's a miracle!), you ain't seen nothing yet.

I live 20 minutes from the Midland center, and many of my freshly graduated 18 year olds were hired and given a days' training to work there....mistakes, sure....................

Of the tons of things wrong with privatization, I've always thought the biggest thing would end up being the "plausible deniability" you just mentioned. They will just go round and round, shuffling us off to different "privatized" agencies, and if you ever do manage to get the attention of an actual government official, they'll blame it on some unintentional company screw-up. And if it gets really bad, a corporation like Accenture will just create some new entity, give it a new name, and start the shuffle all over again. The end result, of course, is that we the people will have lost our first amendment right to redress our grievances to the government. There isn't going to be any government left to redress by the time they get through.

I know about this first hand too, it's the exact thing my son is going through with privatized workmen's comp insurance in Oregon.

"There isn't going to be any government left to redress by the time they get through."

Remember Grover Norquist? "Shrink it down until you can drown it in a bathtub" Norquist? They are ALL of his ilk.

and a good illustration of why we need universal health care as a basic right in this country

Republicans are scum.

73% of people renewing are being denied their renewals.

This story is outrageous.

The state decided to outsource the job of screening applications to Accenture Consulting (that is, to Arthur Andersen reborn in an offshore tax haven).

And they decided to change the rules.

And Accenture didn't notify families of additional fees now being required.

And they are dropping children from the program because their families didn't pay the fees after NOT being notified that they were required.


Particularly ironic is the one example of children being dropped for not providing proof of citizenship. Good thing that Accenture didn't need to prove citizenship to be awarded the contract to administer the screening.

Unbelievable. So how much money in no-bid contracts will be given to Texas companies at the expense of Texas's most poor children? Call me cynical (I am), but the shear greed and stupidity of this is ludicrous.

For some strange reason, I don't hear anything of so-called "pro-lifers" running to the rescue of these kids (by asking for donations, by holding bake sales, benefit concerts, etc.). Could it be that they don't really care about children? :eyes:

But after they are born they can judgmentally sit on their asses and tell poor mothers how "irresponsible" they are (all while at the same time getting rid of funding for birth control). They lack basic logic and common sense. :banghead: