HUSKY - Healthcare for UninSured Kids and Youth

HUSKY Coverage for Parents

There are at least 242,000 Connecticut residents living without health insurance.

• The typical uninsured Connecticut resident is employed, lives in a family making just above the poverty level, and is between 19 and 24 years old
• Nationally, low wage workers (under $7/hour) are half as likely to be offered employer-based health coverage as higher wage workers (over $15/hour), and low wage workers pay almost twice as much for that coverage in total dollars; Despite that 3 in 4 low-wage workers accept coverage, often paying over 10% of their income
• When the uninsured do get sick, they are more likely to delay care until the problem worsens, becomes more difficult to treat and then access care in expensive emergency rooms where the costs are shifted to taxpayers and employers
• Even after recovering from illness, the uninsured are often saddled with huge medical bills that require sacrifices by the entire family, damaging credit ratings that can harm a family's economic picture years into the future

Many of Connecticut's uninsured working adults are parents of children eligible for HUSKY. Covering parents AND children makes sense.

• Healthy children need healthy parents - parents cannot provide all the care that active children need to thrive without adequate coverage for themselves
• Parents tend to be young and healthy, and so are relatively inexpensive to cover
• Providing the uninsured with preventive care and early treatment of disease will save money for both taxpayers and private employers
• Covering parents will support struggling families leaving welfare
• Health care coverage reduces time lost at work and allows flexibility in employment decisions expanding Connecticut's tight labor market
• At least ten other states cover parents of Medicaid-enrolled children