Arizona Republicans Deny CHIP to Children and Parents


The Medicaid Gap

Arizona Fails Mankind By Denying 30,000 Children Health Insurance

Arizona has denied 30,000 children health insurance by refusing to fund CHIP (KidsCare). The program has been defunded since 2010. This is the latest example of politicians choosing special corporate interests and political ideology over human life. It may be defensible to not want to fund every assistance program, but denying kids CHIP is about as low as it gets.

“The KidsCare Office is unable to approve any new applications. Enrollment in the KidsCare Program has been frozen since January 1, 2010 due to lack of funding for the program.” KidsCare – Arizona’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

The GOP in Arizona (or at least those who side with Andy Biggs) claimed that Medicaid already covers kids, but that is A LIE (Medicaid and CHIP are joint-funded with the Federal Government, so any politician has access to the reports and knows kids are going without coverage).

The truth is families making less than 133% of the poverty level have access to Medicaid, but CHIP typically extends up into the 200% FPL range, if not higher for children and parents. This is because they are LITTLE KIDS, they aren’t old enough to “get a job” like the out-of-touch GOP in Arizona who confuse fundraising and taking away healthcare as “a job”.

To be fair, AZ did expand Medicaid (which other states have refused to do, which creates the Medicaid Gap). Also, to be fair, not every Republican in AZ has the same “interests”. In this case, those who do, overshadow the conversation.

Read more from Tuscon.com Steller: KidsCare debacle shows that AZ makes no sense. There is nothing I can say that isn’t better expressed by those on the ground floor.

“KidsCare, Arizona’s version of the national Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), costs the state nothing, allowing us to use federal tax money to provide health insurance to children whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but are still relatively poor. We’re talking about the working poor — people who truly do just need a hand up.”

Author: Thomas DeMichele

Thomas DeMichele is the head writer and founder of ObamaCareFacts.com, FactsOnMedicare.com, and other websites. He has been in the health insurance and healthcare information field since 2012. ObamaCareFacts.com is a...

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I should have gotten insurance from the military when my husband was killed in Vietnam 03 nov. 69 All my questions went unanswered. Now i am 72 and i have no insurance and no extra money and my health isn’t too good i can barely walk the pain is so bad. A friend of mine became disabled before he turned 64 and he has medicare and medicaid but the service he gets from drs is deplorable he had a brown recluse spider bite and the Dr accused him of using a dirty needle and his Dr never came into see him for his drs visit and another Dr accused him of trying to get pain meds etc from hospitol so he told him to find another dr. So even if someone can afford to see a Dr why they don’t care?. So in pain daily very severe and Dr said he had parkinsons but never sent him to a specialist etc he is getting no medicines etc. What are we to do? My oldest daughter died on her 50th birthday and the emts stood around laughing. While her very young daughter is trying to get thru it as she is now the care giver for her 2 children and her younger brother. What can we do? Please help some how!

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