Moylan, Calvo appointed to council

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - In order to address the inadequate healthcare and health insurance for foster children and children under Child Protective Services, Senator Michael San Nicolas has convened an advisory council headed by former Lieutenant Governor Kaleo Moylan and vice chaired by First Lady Christine Calvo.

The senator said, "Right now, kids who are in CPS, there are about 191 of them, and they either get Medicaid or MIP and these are kids who suffered from homes that weren't ideal and were taken in by the state. So I wanted to make sure that we're not adding to that suffering by giving them the lowest quality of care."  Senator San Nicolas adds the advisory group will help in the crafting of legislation to bring the gold standard of health insurance coverage for these children.

San Nicolas notes that currently, Medicaid and MIP are the only available insurance options for those under cps custody adding that the Medicaid application process typically takes two to four months and can sometimes go on for six months. As a result, basic preventative healthcare such as physicals can take months to schedule.

He says if children need medical care while waiting Medicaid approval, they would have to use public health services which can also take hours and if emergency services are needed, they would have to be taken to GMH which would be paid for from the cps foster care account, which is the same account that is used to pay for their day to day expenses.