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Hood River News Editorial
January 24, 2007
Gov. Ted Kulongoski unveiled his
ambitious Healthy Kids’ Plan Monday.
The governor’s initiative includes an 84.5 cent per-pack cigarette
tax, with the revenue dedicated to providing health insurance for
uninsured children in Oregon.
Legislators quietly received the proposal Monday. Not a single
lawmaker asked a question of the governor at the presentation before
the House-Senate health care panel.
But certain facts, by way of the 2006 Children First report, speak
loudly:
Nearly 118,000 Oregon children (12 percent) are without health
insurance, which severely limits their access to preventative and
other necessary care. Children First is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
advocacy group funded via individual, foundation and corporate grants.
As a Children’s First spokesman points out, “When children are unable
to access necessary medical care, society pays a high price.”
The need seems even more critical in Hood River County: according to
Children First, 15.1 percent of children (861) lack health insurance.
In addition, 53.6 percent of eighth-graders have not gone to a doctor
in the past year.
A big-picture statistic is more troubling: 19.2 percent of Hood River
County children live in extreme poverty, which is 10 percent worse
than the statewide rate, according to Children First.
There is no simple solution to any of these problems, and an increased
cigarette tax alone is probably not the answer, but the Children First
report, “An Issue of Fairness: Reducing Health Disparities,” should be
required reading for citizens, legislators — and lobbyists. |
