Whereas kids with no insurance are far more likely not to get to see a doctor at all.
The report was done for the Robert Wood John Foundation, which specializes in health issues, by researchers at the University of Minnesota.
It shows once again the value of the State Children's Health Insurance Program -- SCHIP, a joint federal and state program to provide insurance for children of the working poor and pregnant women.
In most states, SCHIP covers children whose families earn as much as twice the federal poverty level, or more.
In Alaska, we're richer as a state, but cheaper when it comes to children's health care: Our government insurance coverage stops with families earning 175 percent of the federal poverty level.
Some legislators tried to extend coverage to more children during this year's session, but lost the battle.
The Robert Wood Johnson report gives these legislators reason to keep trying.
The report says 22,400 Alaska children have some kind of chronic condition. Of those, 8,722 are covered by public insurance such as SCHIP or Medicaid, which is for low-income families.
More than 800 Alaska children with chronic conditions are uninsured, the report said. The rest have private insurance.
Good thing SCHIP has such a strong record, with that many kids needing regular medical care.
Next year, maybe Alaska will be generous enough to pick up some of the 800 kids who are just as sick as those with SCHIP but don't have insurance.
BOTTOM LINE: Government health insurance for children is working. Alaska needs to expand its program.
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About this year's initiatives
This week, the Daily News is publishing guest opinion pieces for and against the initiatives on this month's primary ballot. Readers who would like to know even more about two of them, the Clean Elections and Clean Water initiatives, should mark Wednesday evening on their calendar. Alaska Common Ground is hosting a forum on the two measures, starting at 7 p.m. at Loussac Library in Midtown.
Panelists from each side on both issues will speak, ask questions of each other and field questions from the audience. The forum should be a great way to help you cast an informed vote on the two questions. It will take place at the Wilda Marston Theater, and should end by 9:30 p.m.
BOTTOM LINE: We recommend the Alaska Common Ground Forum on the Clean Elections and Clean Water initiatives, Wednesday, 7 p.m. at Loussac Library.
Green obsession
Hi, and welcome to Green Lawns Anonymous. My name's Matt, and I am a green lawn addict.
I am obsessed with my lawn the way Ahab was obsessed with the great white whale. I know the "perfect" lawn is a ridiculous, environmentally incorrect compulsion, but I am powerless to cure it. That's why I'm here.
If I see a doggie pee spot turning brown, I rake up the dead grass and throw down a patch of sod or a handful of grass seed.
When I see teeny buds of aspen saplings poking through the grass, I pluck the boogers out one by one. I rip up that section of lawn and tear out all of the aspen roots that survived the clear-cutting and chemical destruction I inflicted on their above-ground relatives last fall.
I do the same where hungry, desperate aspen roots are stealing nutrients from the grass and stunting its growth. Those roots are snarled into a tangle that's worse than a Rastafarian's dreadlocks. I can easily waste an hour digging around in a couple of square feet of lawn.
I recently saw a beautiful clump of grass growing in the curb one street over from my house. I liberated it for use in patching the spots in my lawn.
Despite all this effort, my lawn does not exactly resemble a golf green. Actually, it looks more like a rehabilitated gravel pit. My lawn is splotchier than the pimply face of an adolescent.
At least I have kept the dandelions at bay -- and I haven't even had to use weed killer. Not that I wouldn't. I am not unilaterally disarming myself in the weed war. This is just a truce. I am not liquidating my stockpile of 2,4-D.
Because you never know -- some day I might have to turn my quest for a perfect lawn over to a higher power.
-- Matt Zencey
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