Elimination of children’s mental health benefit burdens Texas family
By LARRY WHEELER | Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — When Texas cut back its health insurance program for low-income children in September, Kathye Smith’s days got a lot longer.
Her 8-year-old son, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, lost access to a therapist. Almost immediately, Sean Smith’s behavior deteriorated at school, his grades dropped and teachers began sending notes home.
“His behavior went completely downhill,” said Smith, 49, a single mom who lives near Houston.
Smith and thousands of other parents across the country are struggling to cope as states move to reduce the money spent on insuring children in low-income families.
“I signed up all my children for this. It was great. The coverage was wonderful, then this year they did all these cuts,” said Smith, a mother of three.
In the past 18 months, 22 states have reduced spending on children’s health insurance programs or have created new barriers to enrollment. In Florida, for instance, 24,000 children have been placed on a waiting list for the state’s Healthy Kids program. Enrollment has been frozen due to budget cuts.
Parents whose kids are still covered by the program are grateful.
“It helps me dramatically,” said Bridget Letizia, 39, who lives with her husband and three children in a mobile home in Palm Bay, Fla.
Letizia said that without government assistance, her children likely would not be able to see their pediatrician on a regular basis and illnesses might go untreated. Letizia and her husband, Frank, a self-employed tile worker, pay $15 a month in premiums for each child for coverage from Healthy Kids.
The Letizias cannot afford health insurance for themselves.
“We live paycheck to paycheck,” Letizia said. “Money is tight.”
Money is also tight for Smith in Texas. Her temporary job as an office manager requires her to drive an hour each way every day in a 1990 Dodge Dynasty that has already traveled nearly 200,000 miles.
Her job doesn’t offer health insurance benefits, so Smith relies on the state children’s health insurance program. Because of her son’s disorder, Smith depended most of all on the program’s mental health care coverage. But state officials eliminated that benefit as part of a move to wipe out a $10 billion budget deficit.
The program in Texas, like similar programs in other states, uses a combination of state and federal money. When Texas officials announced they would eliminate most mental health benefits for low-income children, federal officials objected. In October, Texas Gov. Rick Perry restored part of the benefit.
But Texas is still waiting for federal officials to approve the restored benefit, said Kristie Zamrazil, press officer for the state’s Health and Human Services Commission.
She said the state is negotiating with managed care plans to provide mental health services to children enrolled in S-CHIP. And state officials plan to reimburse qualified mental health care providers who care for eligible children during the lapse in state coverage.
Meanwhile, Smith and other parents are being told they have no mental health coverage for their children, according to child advocates.
Smith still has coverage through the program that allows her son to see a pediatrician and helps pay for his asthma medicine. But that doesn’t help with his hyperactivity problem.
“My son and other children with learning disabilities or one thing or another need mental health care because it helps them learn how to deal with their peers, and to have somebody to talk to when there are problems,” Smith said.