The clock is ticking for Arizona lawmakers to reach a deal on Arizona’s budget. Arizona Week Friday looks at some of the biggest talking points.
KidsCare
KidsCare is insurance program for children in low-income families. Arizona froze KidsCare enrollments in 2010 because of a lack of funding, however, the federal government has agreed to pay for the program.
“I think there’s a groundswell among rank and file members, I think we’ll see an amendment to restore the program,” said Rep. Eric Meyer, Arizona House Minority Leader and a physician.
The Arizona House approved a bill unfreezing KidsCare, but it stalled in the Senate. Arizona is the only state in the U.S. without the program.
“If we don’t do that, our tax dollars actually go to children in other states, when the need here is so great and so high,“ said Dana Wolfe Naimark, President and CEO of the Children’s Action Alliance which has advocated for restoring KidsCare.
Arizona has 160,000 children who are uninsured, reported the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. The state is among the top five in the country with the highest uninsured rates.
Pediatrician Elizabeth McKenna said 30 to 40,000 kids would get healthcare if the program is restored. She said children without health insurance often can’t see a doctor, which means minor illnesses worsen until emergency room care or hospital admission is required
“This oftentimes uncompensated care is extremely costly to both the state as well as those hospitals themselves,” McKenna said. McKenna co-founder of Healing Hearts Pediatrics, a network of offices in the Phoenix area.
McKenna said she has heard from former patients who miss school in excess because their family can’t afford to take the children to the doctor when they are sick.
“Arizona needs to take care of its children because they are its future,” McKenna said.
K-12 Education
Rep. Meyer calls education funding in the budget “non-existent.”
“It makes no sense, we should be directly focusing on things that reduce college tuition for our students across the state and then invest in K-12,” Meyer said.
Public education currently accounts for about 42 percent of Arizona’s budget.
“We can argue about the pie size perhaps,” said Rep. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, who is a school board member in the Coolidge School District. “As far as the slice of the pie that education gets, it’s half of the budget.”
Rep. Paul Boyer, R-Glendale, chair of the House Education Committee, said there is a fear if legislators don’t protect K-12 education in the budget, voters will be less likely to support Prop. 123 in the May election.
Boyer, who is a teacher, said educators could benefit from higher salaries, supplies, support from administration and also from elected officials.
“I think to communicate a certainty, that the legislature, we have your back,” Boyer said.
Border Strike Force
Gov. Doug Ducey’s budget proposal asked for $31.5 million to fund drug and human smuggling prevention efforts in Arizona.
“There’s a lot of misery that comes across this border by organized criminal groups and drug cartels,” said Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He said the strike force will be mostly funded, however, restoration of money to technical education districts may reduce the amount designated for the strike force.
On the program
- Elizabeth McKenna, pediatrician
- Dana Wolfe Naimark, president and CEO of the Children’s Action Alliance
- Eric Meyer, Democrat, Arizona House Minority Leader and physician
- Paul Boyer, Republican Chair of the House Education Committee
- T.J. Shope, Republican Representative and school board member in the Coolidge School District
- John Kavanagh, Republican Representative on the Senate Appropriations Committee
- Luige del Puerto, Assistant Editor at the Arizona Capitol Times
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