Back in 2007, the state of Hawaii was the first state to start a universal health insurance law for children. The program, called Keiki Care, was created to provide health coverage for all income level children in the state.

CNN and the Associated Press reported that all children enrolled in Keiki Care were entitled to free health insurance, with a $7 copay for doctor’s visits. The program was cut seven months after it was in effect, by Governor Linda Lingle. Her reasoning for this was an overall $900 budget deficit by the year 2011.

Governor Lingle’s actions are resulting in 2,000 children in Hawaii losing health insurance coverage. Her administration cites that most of the Keiki Care enrolled children has dropped theri previous insurance for this free coverage.

“People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free. I don’t believe that was the intent of the program.” said an administrator at the state Department of Human Services. But some were taken aback by the Republican governor’s decision.

“We’re very disappointed in the state’s decision, and it came as a complete surprise to us. We believe the program is working, and given Hawaii’s economic uncertainty, we don’t think now is the time to cut all funding for this kind of program,” stated a spokesperson for the Hawaii Medical Service Association. There are some things we are seeing with this program cut.

It seems a little weird that the governor would sign the program into law last year, and not realize a deficit in the future. As well as the fact that 2,000 children will have their insurance dropped, it seems strange that a governor would approve a law, then kill it soon after. Lawmakers seem to agree with this observation.

“Children are a lot more vulnerable in terms of needing care. It’s not very good to try to be a leader and then renege on that commitment,” stated Hawaii Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland. And, when it was mentioned that the people who enrolled in Keiki Care dropped their private insurance to do so, we are wondering if that was because they were trying to cheat the system, or if they were paying too much for their own private coverage? We would all like to hear an explanation from the governor on this.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 am and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.