Waiting on Health Care Reform, Counties Struggle To Fund Kids' Health Programs

In a California Healthline Special Report, Wendy Lazarus — co-founder and president of the Children’s Partnership — and Janie Tyre — vice president for external affairs with the Santa Clara Family Health Plan — discussed funding shortfalls facing California’s Children’s Health Initiatives.

CHIs are county-run programs designed to fill gaps left by state and federally funded children’s health insurance programs and help more parents sign their children up for coverage.

CHIs in some ways have become victims of their own success, Tyre and Lazarus said. More than half of California counties have launched CHIs, and public and private funding streams are stretched increasingly thin.

Lazarus said state and federal health care reform to expand health insurance to children cannot come soon enough, adding that 2008 or 2009 could be too late.

“These programs cannot continue to plug the dike for kids for very much longer,” she said (Kennedy, California Healthline, 9/17).

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<h1>Waiting on Health Care Reform, Counties Struggle To Fund Kids’ Health Programs</h1>
<div>		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2007-09-17T00:00:00-07:00">
			September 17, 2007		</time>
		</div>
<p>In a California Healthline Special Report, Wendy Lazarus — co-founder and president of the Children’s Partnership — and Janie Tyre — vice president for external affairs with the Santa Clara Family Health Plan — discussed funding shortfalls facing California’s Children’s Health Initiatives. </p><p>CHIs are county-run programs designed to fill gaps left by state and federally funded children’s health insurance programs and help more parents sign their children up for coverage.  </p><p>CHIs in some ways have become victims of their own success, Tyre and Lazarus said. More than half of California counties have launched CHIs, and public and private funding streams are stretched increasingly thin. </p><p>Lazarus said state and federal health care reform to expand health insurance to children cannot come soon enough, adding that 2008 or 2009 could be too late. </p><p>“These programs cannot continue to plug the dike for kids for very much longer,” she said (Kennedy, California Healthline, 9/17).</p><ul><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/waiting-on-health-care-reform-counties-struggle-to-fund-kids-health-programs/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/waiting-on-health-care-reform-counties-struggle-to-fund-kids-health-programs/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/waiting-on-health-care-reform-counties-struggle-to-fund-kids-health-programs/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Waiting%20on%20Health%20Care%20Reform%2C%20Counties%20Struggle%20To%20Fund%20Kids%27%20Health%20Programs&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcaliforniahealthline.org%2Fnews%2Fwaiting-on-health-care-reform-counties-struggle-to-fund-kids-health-programs%2F&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/waiting-on-health-care-reform-counties-struggle-to-fund-kids-health-programs/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li><li>				<a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/waiting-on-health-care-reform-counties-struggle-to-fund-kids-health-programs/view/republish/">					Republish This Story				</a>			</li></ul><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p>

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