This is from the Buffalo News:
Spitzer vows health insurance for state’s children
Health care industry comes under attackBy TOM PRECIOUS
News Albany Bureau
1/27/2007ALBANY - Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer began the long-anticipated health care wars in earnest Friday, charging the state’s health care system has put the needs of institutions, labor unions and insurers ahead of patients.
Child & Family Health Plus isn’t enough when it comes to giving children health coverage?
Family Health Plus and Child Health Plus
Family Health Plus is a public health insurance program run by the Department of Health for adults between the ages of 19 and 64 who do not have health insurance — either on their own or through their employers — but have incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid. Family Health Plus is available to single adults, couples without children, and parents with limited income who are residents of New York State and are United States citizens or fall under one of many immigration categories.
Family Health Plus provides comprehensive coverage, including prevention, primary care, hospitalization, prescriptions and other services. There are no costs to participate in Family Health Plus. Health care is provided through participating managed care plans in your area.
To apply for Family Health Plus, you will need to have a personal interview where you will complete an application, provide proof of certain information, and select a health plan. Enrollment facilitators are located near your home or work, to help you apply, ease the enrollment process and answer your questions. Please call 1-877-9FHPLUS (1-877-934-7587), and ask about Family Health Plus.
New York State also has a health insurance plan for kids, called Child Health Plus. Child Health Plus is run by the Department of Health. Depending on your family’s income, your child may be eligible to join either Child Health Plus A (formerly Children’s Medicaid) or Child Health Plus B. Both Child Heath Plus A and B are available through dozens of providers throughout the state. Enrolling in Child Health Plus is easy.
To be eligible for either Child Health Plus A or B, children must be under the age of 19 and be residents of New York State. Whether a child qualifies for Child Health Plus A or Child Health Plus B depends on gross family income. Children who are not eligible for Child Health Plus A can enroll in Child Health Plus B if they don’t already have health insurance and are not eligible for coverage under the public employees’ state health benefits plan. Please call this toll-free number: 1-800-698-4KIDS (1-800-698-4543), and ask about Child Health Plus.
Wait! he’s talking on the unions & using NY children without health coverage to do it:
The governor’s address puts him at odds with Local 1199, one of the state’s most powerful unions, and most influential industries - not to mention a State Legislature that has beaten back many of the budget proposals Spitzer is borrowing in some form from previous governors who have tried to control health care spending.
Mr. Governor, how much is another “free” health plan going to cost the taxpayers of New York State? I am not expecting you to re-invent the wheel. I don’t understand why the state doesn’t want to [or won’t] expand on the services we already have. Â
Spitzer said his eventual goal is universal health coverage for all 2.6 million New Yorkers without insurance.
I heard this somewhere before:
Gov. Schwarzenegger proposes univeral health insurance coverage
On January 9, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger outlined his proposals to make health insurance coverage mandatory for all those living in California, including those there illegally. The governor’s bold plan requires all citizens to carry insurance, and provides mechanisms for state-funded plans for those who cannot afford health insurance. According the Schwarzenegger, there are 6.2 million uninsured in California.
Let me be the first to call out a copy cat governor to Arrrnold 
This last sentence in the Buffalo News article says it all:
Medicaid costs the state about $45 billion this year - nearly half of the total state budget.
Maybe if the former Attorney General investigated price gouging in the medical profession [NATION WIDE] we wouldn’t have to worry about covering the under [health] covered children in this state because families would be able to afford doctors’ visits like before.
One in six older adults with chronic ailments skip Rx drugs because of cost
ANN ARBOR, MI - A recent nationally representative survey of older adults finds that 18 percent of those with chronic conditions such as heart disease and depression skip some of their prescription medicines because of out-of-pocket cost pressures, and 14 percent do so at least every month.
Based on the study’s findings, the authors estimate that every month, this cost-related medication skimping leads more than a million Americans with diabetes to use less medication for that illness than was prescribed to them, and causes more than 1.6 million people with asthma to miss some of their doses of medication.
The findings, from a nationally representative survey of 4,055 adults over the age of 50, are published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health by a team from the University of Michigan Health System, the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System and Stanford University.
Need I say more? Mr. Spitzer, put your politics aside & do what’s right for the people of NYS!
Signed,
Fed-Up in Buffalo.
