State Children's Heatlh Insurance

We've all done a lot of looking back to the lessons of 1993-94, and the long list of reasons the highly complex, ill-timed and politically-polarizing Clinton health care plan failed. But today the journal Health Affairs published an essay looking back not just at the failures of the Clinton plan but at the successful passage of two major health reform initiatives--the truly bipartisan State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the Medicare Modernization Act, which added prescription drug coverage for seniors.

Birmingham, Alabama, has announced an ambitious program to cover the city's 5,000 uninsured children through a mix of public-private partnerships blending public funding, philanthropy and an arrangement with a local children's hospital planning a major job-creating and revenue-producing expansion.

The plan isn't a comprehensive solution to all the health problems in the state—Alabama ranked 42 in CQ's 2008 Health Care State Rankings—but screening and covering young people is a sensible step.

Mayor Larry Langford said the city will put up $150,000, and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama's Child Caring Foundation will match the funds. Eligible low-income children will be enrolled in Medicaid or the state's All Kids program; others will get care through the foundation, the Birmingham News reported.

"It's wrong that we allow these children to go unprotected. It's wrong that we make mothers and fathers worry every day about something as basic as health care,” Langford said.