More than half of Arizona’s babies were born under the state’s health plan for low-income residents last year, according to statistics from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
The system, also known as AHCCCS, paid for 53,121 deliveries last year. That’s about 52 percent of the state’s 102,042 births. In 2000, AHCCCS paid for 42 percent of the state’s births.
AHCCCS reported paying more than $4,200 on average for each birth it covered last year — a $223 million expenditure that also covered prenatal care for most of those babies’ mothers.
The increase in coverage follows recent policy changes allowing more individuals and families to qualify for free or low-cost care. And if the Arizona Senate budget proposal passes, even more women would qualify for prenatal care with AHCCCS.
Now, pregnant women can get AHCCCS if their incomes are within 133 percent of poverty level — about $18,200 for a single woman, the lowest income limit allowed by Medicaid.
But under a budget proposal from state Sen. Barbara Leff, R-11, that number would increase to 150 percent.
“Any increase is an improvement,” Leff said. “But the leadership is looking at this backwards. They see this as an outright cost. I see it as a savings. They’re being shortsighted by not caring for these mothers.”
Senate President Tim Bee, R-30, said he and Gov. Janet Napolitano fully support the increase to 150 percent. “These are young families starting out,” Bee said. “Prenatal care is clearly something that’s very important for the health of these babies and mothers.”
Drain on taxpayers≠
Public health experts say the trend toward increased coverage is positive, but others see it as a drain on taxpayers.
“Some lawmaker said, ‘It won’t be long before Paris Hilton will qualify for AHCCCS,’ ” said Darcy Olsen, president of the conservative Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. “People who can pay for themselves certainly should.”
Olsen referred to a program known as Kids-Care Parents, which covers parents who can have an income of up to $40,000 a year for a family of four.
“Most Arizonans would certainly support the idea of AHCCCS helping the truly needy and indigent,” Olsen said. “But now they are helping families who are middle-class.”
Jack Jewett, senior vice president of Tucson Medical Center, said the state is doing what voters told it to do.
“We as citizens and voters have said there’s a need, and we want to meet that need, and that’s happened in elections,” he said.
Jewett was referring to three ballot initiatives passed by voters over the last 10 years, demanding more health care for the low-income residents in 1996 and 2000, and creating the state’s new early-childhood-development board known as First Things First last year.
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