PeachCare to offer children insurance

Web posted October 29, 1998

By Tom Corwin
Staff Writer

On Sunday, about 177 children in Macon will get health insurance their parents couldn't afford before under a new statewide program to extend coverage to children who don't qualify for Medicaid.

PeachCare for Kids will start in Macon and spread across the state and into the Augusta area on Dec. 1, but some aren't sure how it will help specific problems with getting access to care, particularly dental care.

A briefing Wednesday for health care providers laid out the details of PeachCare, which is expected to cover up to 140,000 uninsured children in Georgia whose parents' income is up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, about $32,900 for a family of four.

The parents pay no premiums for children under age 5, and parents of children from ages 6-18 will pay $7.50 a month for one child and $15 per month for two or more. The coverage is virtually the same as Medicaid coverage.

But the problem may be finding someone to treat the children. Because of historically low Medicaid payments that did not cover costs, there are practically no dentists in southwest Georgia who take Medicaid, and few in the Macon area are taking any new Medicaid patients, said Dr. Sheri Jacobs, a dentist from the Macon area. Dr. Jacobs is doing a pediatric residency at Medical College of Georgia's School of Dentistry.

Adding 7,000 new children to those rolls in the Macon area under PeachCare may raise some false hopes, Dr. Jacobs said.

``For physicians, I think it's going to be great,'' Dr. Jacobs said. ``But I think there are going to be some angry parents'' when they find there is little initial access to dental care.

Medicaid recently raised its dental payments by one-third and is hoping that will attract more dentists to the program, said Medicaid spokeswoman Laura Marshall. Those dentists would then be available for PeachCare kids as well, she said.

Tom Corwin covers health issues for The Augusta Chronicle. He can be reached at (706) 823-3213 or newsroom@augustachronicle.com.