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When you talk about an issue long enough, every argument starts to sound the same, so much that even your own mother starts tuning you out. It's a bit like "American Idol" or "Britain's Got Talent" where all the auditions start to blend together.
We've been crooning on for years about the excessive and unnecessary amount of paperwork that some states impose on children and families enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP but it seemed as though we just couldn't get a callback. Enter stage left: Robert Nelb, a 23-year old student and health outreach volunteer with "Pointless Paperwork Is A Health Care Hurdle," an op-ed that is about as pitch-perfect as Susan Boyle's performance on "Britain's Got Talent." He really hit a high note with his call for "hassle-free health care".
Pointless paperwork not only puts up artificial barriers that deter families from getting and keeping eligible children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, but it's also costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year. With so many rich data sources in today's world of technology, we should all be asking why do we have public coverage systems that require families to maneuver a maze of paperwork filled with bureaucratic barriers to get health care for their kids?
One of the key problems is a large percentage of uninsured kids had coverage but then lost it due to complicated paperwork at re-enrollment. Studies show as many as 40% of uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP were enrolled in the previous year. If we are serious about getting kids covered, we need to start with simplifying the process.
Even Simon Cowell would have been "gobsmacked" with the fresh perspective offered by Nelb. We're looking forward to Robert's encore performance - a Brooking's Institute paper on automatic enrollment.
I completely agree and I hope Susan and Simon can do something about this.
It's amazing to me that in the wake of major financial crisis across the country, we still cling to wasteful paper practices. Not only does it create hardship for children and families trying to gain and keep health insurance, but as you said, it wastes time and resources for the state. I'm super excited to follow this blog and your insightful posts, Tricia. It's like being in the same office. So when can I start to follow you on Twitter?
Rather than hitting a note, the paperwork maze is more like hitting a wall for many families.
This week, Colorado’s Covering Kids and Families released a report detailing the maze faced by parents who are simply trying to provide health coverage for their eligible children – yet are unable to do so because of unnecessary roadblocks.
This first-of-its-kind report in Colorado details the barriers to coverage and the concrete improvements our state can adopt to create a clear path to coverage for the estimated 78,000 uninsured children who are already eligible for these programs but remain uninsured.
As advocates, we know how to make the system work for parents and taxpayers, and most importantly, for uninsured Colorado children. Now, if our leaders are serious about covering eligible but uninsured kids, they’ll consider these reforms immediately and continue tearing down the maze.
The full report can be found at http://www.cchn.org/ckf/pdf/CKF_Report_The_Maze_April_2009.pdf
I tried following your link but received a "page not found" message. In case any other readers experience that trouble - cutting and pasting the address into my search engine window worked.