Faced with an abscess on their daughter's leg, an uninsured family tried a series of home remedies. When they finally took her to the emergency room at Primary Children's Medical Center, the infection was so serious that doctors feared the girl would lose her leg.
After extensive surgery and treatment, the leg was saved, emergency pediatric physician Charles Pruitt told the Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Monday.
Treating the abscess with antibiotics in its early stages could have been far simpler -- and less costly -- if the girl had access to insurance and a primary physician, Pruitt said, as SB44 would allow. The legislation removes a provision requiring legal immigrant children to live in the United States for five years before they are eligible for Medicaid or the Utah Children's Health Insurance Program, which aid low-income families.
"I see firsthand the results of failure to support financially our children of Utah," Pruitt said. "They come to me and the emergency department when they can't find care anywhere else. ... I see the worst of the worst."
After her bill died last year in the House, Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake City, resurrected the push to give health insurance to about 800 legal immigrant children through SB44.
"This is truly not an immigration issue, this is a health-care issue and these families are playing by the rules," Robles said, adding green card holders pay income and other taxes that are used for Medicaid and CHIP. Preventative care is also cheaper than delaying checkups for five years and letting a potential illness become far more complicated and costly, she said.
But after the hearing, local activist Ron Mortensen said SB44 is about immigration and just forces taxpayers to assume others' health care costs.
A total of 28 states now offer help to low-income legal immigrant children. Six of those added the aid after a recent federal law allowed states to open Medicaid and CHIP to that demographic as well as pregnant women and still receive a four-to-one federal match.
Robles' bill would cost the state about $468,600, and the committee asked her to return with a proposal of which services to cut to fund SB44. The tobacco tax is one source she's looking into. Because SB44 would be funded with money outside its current budget, Robles said her legislation would not affect the space available for children who are currently eligible for CHIP.
