It’s a decision no parent wants to make: Delay taking your sick child to the doctor because you can’t afford the bill. Stewart is relying on hope, homeopathic remedies and some borrowed antibiotics to cure her 7-year-old’s earache. And she’s waiting until July to take her 4-year-old to the dentist for a dead tooth. That’s when the state will have enough money to enroll 12,000 more kids in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which now pays for insurance for 28,706 youth. Enrollment starts July 2. Stewart is counting down the days. ‘It’s a ticking time bomb,’ she said of the wait. ‘If you were to take them in for everything you need to take them for, you’d be done. There’s no way to afford it. The main consequence is kids are lacking care that they need.’ Choking up, Stewart laments the position she’s in. ‘It’s horrible. It should never be a question whether you take them or not.’ But it’s one that parents of the 89,500 Utah children who don’t have health insurance must make – and their health and the community suffer for it, say doctors and advocates […]

Read the Full Article