CNN Glosses Over Failure of Universal Health Care

This health care plan seems like it has more flaws than the bailout bill.

A news brief on "CNN Newsroom" Oct. 17 said that Hawaii's universal health care program for children would be hit with the "budget ax."

The screen said "Hawaii's Budget Ax" and anchor Heidi Collins reported that, "For the past seven months it's been the only state in the nation to offer universal healthcare for children. Now that program is being dropped."

But the brief didn't go into detail about one of the main reasons why the program was being axed: abuse of the "free" system.

A Hawaii state official said that families were "dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan," according to the Associated Press.

According to the Hawaii Reporter, the state administration was concerned about the Keiki Care Plan's enrollment process because it didn't make sure that children were ineligible for Medicaid and its superior benefits.

"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free ... I don't believe that was the intent of the program," Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services, said to the AP.

The state will stop funding the Keiki Care Plan, a basic health insurance program for some 2,000 children, beginning Nov. 1. The program was a public-private partnership with Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), which will pay to cover the children through the end of 2008.