[StBernard] Governor Blanco's remarks at the LaCHIP Conference

[Westley Annis]

Governor Blanco's remarks at the LaCHIP Conference 


Good Morning. Thank you so very much for that wonderful welcome and introduction. What a fantastic audience!!

I can think of no better place to deliver one of my last speeches as your Governor. 

I can say without hesitation that one of my greatest achievements has been to lead the largest increase in the number of children now with health insurance. We're 631,619 strong and if the President and the Congress would cooperate we can be 32,000 stronger this year!! 

When I took office, I took on that elusive "health care reform" effort that so many people suggested Louisiana wasn't ready for. While that journey has been a challenge, our efforts are changing the way we deliver health care in Louisiana, especially for our children.

When I ran for Governor in 2003, increasing enrollment of eligible children in LaCHIP was a key part of my health care platform and in March of 2004, I publicly announced that one of my immediate health care reform goals would be the enrollment of all eligible children in LaCHIP and expansion of insurance coverage for children.

By July of 2005--just over a year later-- enrollment of kids in LaCHIP had increased by more than 50,000 children. 
Louisiana is now in the top quartile nationally of states that have the most eligible children enrolled in their SCHIP program. In fact, what's even more significant to health care reform is that the overall number of Louisiana kids who are uninsured has dropped from 11.1% in 2003 to 6.1% in 2007! 

Now that is SUCCESS!! 

While this is indeed remarkable progress, due in large part to your hard work, the job is not finished. We will not be satisfied until every Louisiana child has access to health care. 

I have made unprecedented investments in education and I am confident that this expenditure, if sustained, will result in long term prosperity for our people. It will be the catalyst from which economic success will emanate. 

But I know and you know that sick children cannot learn. Plain and simple. 

Education and economic development investments must be matched by commitments to childhood health care. That is why expanding LaCHIP was one of the first initiatives of my administration.

Our efforts resulted in a 40% increase in the number of children enrolled and this fiscal year the legislature unanimously supported my request to expand LaCHIP to families earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level with personal participation required on a sliding scale. 

The success of this program and the inability of so many working families to get health insurance for their children demanded that we find a way to make this program work for more families. 

I remember Susan Keller, a school teacher who wrote to me explaining that the teacher pay raise she got last year made her children ineligible for LaCHIP and how devastating this was to her and her kids. 
We can not let the cost of health insurance overburden our hardworking families and LaCHIP is the program that provides the boost to keep our families healthy and productive.

I am proud of our most recent 30 million dollar investment to expand and fund additional outreach and enrollment, the largest investment in the ten year history of the LaCHIP program. 

Your outreach efforts are making the difference. You are going out, finding eligible families and making sure they know about this program. 

To the DHH leadership and employees across this state....To Dr. Cerise and Dr. Townsend, Ruth Kennedy, Kyle Viator and Dawn Love at the state level....To the local school employees, community agencies and, of course, the Louisiana Covering Kids and Families Statewide Coalition.....thank you for all that you have done and continue to do to get these kids enrolled. 

We can design it, build it and promote it, but you deliver it to the people and for that I am sincerely grateful for your partnership.

Louisiana's success in decreasing the uninsured rate through LaCHIP can also be attributed, in part, to the program's administrative simplicity. 

We've shortened the application form; eliminated the face-to-face interview; provided for 12 month continuous eligibility; streamlined the requirements for enrollment; changed the role of caseworkers from passive to active helping families get the information they need to prove their eligibility and dramatically improved the retention of eligible children at renewal states.

In addition to increasing insurance coverage for children, we also increased immunization rates to protect our must vulnerable citizens from childhood diseases that keep them out of school and often cause them to fall behind academically. 

We've increased access to primary and preventive care by expanding the number of community health clinics in Louisiana with 20 new federally qualified health center sites opened, 47 new rural clinics certified and 50 million dollars invested in clinic capacity expansion. 

We are also piloting a 25 million dollar medical home project in the New Orleans region to link patients with a primary care physician and we invested $13 million in a similar initiative between LSU-Shreveport and the rural hospital coalition. 

We're investing in health information technology to the tune of $37 million dollars to create electronic medical records for patients. We will insure our people get the right care at the right time in the right place. It's the reform that everyone wants and it's coming to a town near you!! 

Talk is cheap--it's easy to say you support LaCHIP, increasing insurance coverage, and reducing reliance on emergency room care. But unless you're willing to change the status quo and target your resources, success is elusive. 

I did what I said I would and I challenge the next administration to sustain our progress!!

In closing, I just want to thank each and every one of you for your partnership and local leadership on health care redesign, especially LaCHIP. Although the storms of 2005 dealt a blow to many of our efforts, we kept our eye on the ball and with your help we have continued to move forward. 

We used the opportunities presented by the devastation and started rebuilding....stronger, smarter and safer. We are not there yet, but with your help the foundation we've laid is strong and future administrations can build upon our work to improve the health of our state.

I want to leave you with one parting request. While I have faith that Congress and the President will do the right thing I urge you to continue your advocacy on behalf of SCHIP. We can't let this set us back and hearing from the grass roots is incredibly powerful. I'll do my part but I ask that you continue to communicate with our delegation about the importance of this program for our children.

Thank you and I wish you a wonderful conference.

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The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation
Louisiana's Fund for Louisiana's People
www.louisianahelp.org