By CHRIS COLLINS

Baker City Herald

The 2007 Status of Oregon’s Children County Data Book focuses on how family friendly business policies offer side benefits to employers.

andquot;More and more research shows that family friendly policies don’t just strengthen the well-being of children they are good for businesses and the economy,andquot; Robin Christian, Children First for Oregon’s executive director, said in a press release.

According to the report released Tuesday, health care coverage, affordable, high-quality child care and paid family leave are good investments.

Health Care Coverage

Health insurance helps guarantee improved child development, better school performance and long-term savings in health-care costs, according to the Children First report. But employers have had to drop or drastically reduce coverage for employees and their families since 2000 because of rising costs, the report said.

Of the 3,497 Baker County children from birth to age 17, 399 were not insured in 2007, the report stated. That’s a rate of or 11.4 per 1,000 children in that age group.

More than half 54.1 percent of the community’s eighth-graders had not had a medical checkup or physical exam in the previous year, according to 2005-06 composite data from the Oregon Healthy Teens Survey, which was included in the Children First report.

Amy Yardley, who coordinated the Baker County Covering Kids and Families outreach program for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) from July 2005 to April 2007, saw firsthand how employee benefits have declined because of climbing premiums.

Yardley said it was not unusual in her experience to find that a business might cover its employees, but in order for the employees to insure other family members, they would have to bear the cost, which could be andquot;hundreds and hundreds of dollars per month.andquot;

As part of her work with Covering Kids and Families, Yardley helped people apply for the federally funded Children’s Health Insurance Program, which serves Oregon children up to age 19 whose household income is 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level and who are not eligible for the Oregon Health Plan or Medicaid. There are no monthly premiums, co-payments or deductibles for participants.

Yardley said she also helped families determine if they qualified for the Family Health Insurance Assistance Program, which pays part of the premium charged to low-income people enrolled in private health insurance programs. The program is not accepting applications at this time because of limited funds.

More information about insurance options is available by calling Oregon SafeNet, a free and confidential helpline that provides statewide health information and referral services at 1-800-SafeNet (1-800-723-3638). Information and applications for various programs also are available through the Baker City office of the state Department of Human Services or the Baker County Health Department, Yardley said.

Although she is no longer working with the CHIP program, Yardley is continuing to help coordinate the Dental Transportation Project through St. Elizabeth Health Services and the Northeast Oregon Network. The grant-funded project pays travel expenses or provides volunteers to drive low-income residents to low-cost dental services, she said.

The School of Dental Hygiene provides preventive care at its La Grande office. Restorative dental care is available at federally qualified health care centers at Ontario, Nyssa and Boardman, Yardley said. Some health-care services are also available at the clinics. Payment is on a sliding-fee scale with discounts based on patient family size and income as they relate to the federal poverty guidelines. More information is available by calling Yardley at 403-0013.

According to regional data taken from the 2007 Oregon Smile Survey, 80.1 percent of children ages 6 to 10 living in Baker, Crook, Grant, Harney, Lake, Malheur and Wheeler counties have experienced tooth decay. The decay has gone untreated in 45.8 percent of those children, according to the Children First report. Another 42.8 percent of children ages 6 to 10 have not seen a dentist in the previous year, the report stated.

Children First advocates expanding the state’s school-based health centers as an effective means of delivering health care to children. Last year, the school-based health clinic at Baker High School served 646 children, according to the report. There are plans to expand the center, which is being administered by the Baker Clinic this year, to Baker Middle School students.

According to the child advocacy organization, of the nearly 110,000 uninsured Oregon children, more than 60,000 are eligible for existing programs. Children First calls on the state to step up its efforts to ensure that every child eligible for the Oregon Health Plan or the Family Health Insurance Assistance Program is enrolled and retained in the system and that current programs are expanded to serve more working families who are unable to afford health insurance.

Affordable Child Care

In advocating for affordable, high-quality child care, Children First for Oregon claims that andquot;when employees have access to quality child care, they are more productive, miss less work and experience higher morale.andquot;

In 2006, there were 486 child care slots in Baker County per 100 children from birth to age 13, according to the report. That rate, 22 slots per 1,000 children, was 15 percent worse than last year, but still 29 percent better than the statewide rate of 17 slots per 1,000 children.

Children First notes that Oregon helps ensure families can afford adequate child care in three ways: providing financial assistance to very low-income parents who are in job-training programs; paying susbsidies to working poor families; and providing tax credits for working families and employers.

andquot;Continuing to strengthen child-care assistance so that more families have access to quality child care they can afford would be good for kids and good for business,andquot; the report said.

Paid Family Leave

Since the 1993 passage of the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employees are guaranteed 12 weeks of protected (but unpaid) time off for family or medical issues, the report noted. Those issues include the birth of a child or time to care for a sick family member. The federal FMLA applied only to employers of 50 or more people. In 1995 the Oregon Family Leave Act was passed, extending the leave requirement to employers of 25 or more workers.

Although employment is guaranteed upon return from leave, 78 percent of FMLA-eligible employees who needed leave declined to take it because they could not afford time off without pay, according to a 2000 Bureau of Labor survey.

Children First urges the state to andquot;develop an insurance-based, employee-funded paid family leave program,andquot; similar to those already in place in California and Washington, the first two states in the nation to adopt paid family leave programs.

andquot;Hardworking families ought to be provided with the supports they need to remain productive members of the workforce and children ought to have a right to time with their parents when they need it most,andquot; the report states.