The Legislature last week delivered to Gov. Bill Ritter one of the most important pieces of legislation this session. The Fiscal Year 2008-2009 state budget, or “Long Bill,” easily reflects the single largest investment in the improvement of children’s health care in Colorado in over a decade.

This budget, initiated by Gov. Ritter and adopted by the Legislature, is a well-thought-out, complimentary package that maximizes federal funds: a smart and savvy approach in a state with limited resources and multiple needs. It also follows closely with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform, thus establishing a solid foundation for health care reform in the coming years.

The Colorado Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, The Children’s Hospital and the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition have historically advocated for basic investments in programs that will provide children with better access to high-quality health care.

As providers of health care to Colorado’s underserved children, we experienced years of being inadequately compensated for providing care to children in public programs: wanting to do the right thing while being faced with the fiscal reality that such losses were not sustainable. Currently, child health providers lose money on every child they see in the Medicaid program. The result is the need to limit Medicaid patients creating scenarios where children will have a Medicaid card but cannot find an available doctor.

Today is a new day for Colorado.

This year’s budget provides health care coverage for an additional 50,000 children by expanding the Child Health Plan Plus and ensuring currently eligible children are enrolled in Medicaid. This is critical in Colorado, where the number of uninsured children is nearly 160,000. Additionally, there is funding to ensure all kids in CHP+ and Medicaid have a medical home to ensure access to the primary and preventive care they need to keep them healthy, strong and out of an emergency room.

The budget contains important infrastructure investments that allow the state to build upon and fully maximize existing health care technology. This includes fully funding the Colorado Immunization Information System, commonly known as the Immunization Registry. CIIS is arguably the single-most important tool the state can employ to ensure kids get timely and appropriate vaccinations against sometimes deadly communicable diseases.

Recognizing the vital role that doctors play in acting as gatekeepers for care to children, the budget contains a much needed and long overdue rate increase for Primary Care Providers. Recognizing that sometimes the best place to provide medical care to children is where they spend their day, the budget contains support for one of Colorado’s most important safety net providers, School Based Health Centers.

This budget is a tremendous accomplishment of the governor’s office and Legislature. It contains important investments for today and sets in motion the building blocks for health care reform discussions of next year and beyond. We commend the vision in proposing this package and the action taken to make it a reality.

MARTHA MIDDLEMIST, MD
President
Colorado Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

JAMES E. SHMERLING
President & CEO
The Children’s Hospital

JIM SHIRA, MD
Chair, Legislative Committee
Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition
Denver

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under General. 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.