Children's health is on the line

Too many North Carolina children don't have access to routine medical care because their parents can't afford health insurance. Gov. Mike Easley and the N.C. House think it's time to do something about that, but the Honorables in the Senate apparently want to study the problem some more.

The House, backed by from a coalition of advocacy groups, doctors, social workers and others who work with children, has agreed to fund NC Kids' Care. Thousands of families who earn too much to qualify for other taxpayer-financed health programs would be able to buy affordable insurance for their children.

The Senate didn't include the program in its spending plan. It should have.

The program would cost taxpayers $4.6 million the first year and $7 million the next to insure roughly 38,000 children. That's under $200 per child - not a lot, considering that children without insurance often see a doctor only when they're sick, and then likely in an emergency room. That's the most expensive kind of care, and taxpayers and insured patients eventually end up paying for it.

NC Kids' Care isn't a free ride. Parents whose incomes fall between 200 percent and 300 percent of poverty ($42,000 to $62,000 for a family of four) would pay a monthly premium based on income.

Their offspring, meanwhile, would get the medical care they need. A country that claims to have the world's best health care owes its children that much.