Study: RIte Care loss hurt workers’<br> health, finances, businesses

PROVIDENCE – A study commissioned by Ocean State Action, a consumer advocacy group, has found that home child care providers who were dropped from RIte Care in 2005 were hurt in terms of their health, access to care, economic stability and business viability.
The study, conducted by a Rhode Island College social work master’s degree candidate, was released as Ocean State Action and others are pressing the state to work harder to minimize the impact of new citizenship documentation requirements for RIte Care beneficiaries, which Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s budget for fiscal 2008 predicts will reduce the program rolls by 5,750.
The researcher, Heather Johnson-LaFreniere, surveyed 1,275 home child care providers and issued “early” results after receiving responses from 126. More than a third reported not being able to get needed health care because they couldn’t afford it, more than a quarter were uninsured, and a few had been forced to close their child care businesses.
Meghan Purvis, policy director for Ocean State Action, said the study “provides a warning for what the future may hold for these newly uninsured,” and she called on elected officials to “stop and reverse” last year’s cuts and look for “new and innovative solutions.”