The economic uncertainty faced by many Americans is having a stark readout locally for many children.

A toxic political climate has combined with historic budget shortfalls to leave a majority of Santa Cruz County kids at risk of losing health insurance -- at a time when families are unable to pick up the cost themselves.

The Sentinel's special report, "Uninsured Kids," done in conjunction with the California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting, concludes today with an examination of how the post-Massachusetts-vote uncertain future of President Obama's health care legislation, along with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans to slash spending, are adding to the enormous financial pressure facing programs such as Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and, locally, Healthy Kids.

Since more than half of Santa Cruz County's 58,000 children are insured by a public health program, funding cuts or even more drastic measures will have enormous repercussions. A proposal last week by state Democrats to revive a single-payer, universal health care system for California has no chance of surviving a governor's veto, if it was even affordable, which it isn't.

Let's look at the most immediate pressures:

Schwarzenegger has already said he wants to narrow eligibility for the state's Healthy Families program. If this proposal goes through, about 1,600 kids from low-income families in our county would lose their health insurance.

But it gets worse. The governor also is seeking money from the federal government as part of what he says is the state's "fair share" of reimbursements for mandated programs, such as dealing with illegal immigration. If the state doesn't get this $7 billion -- and the state's two U.S. senators say it's unlikely -- he says he will be forced to eliminate Healthy Families altogether. That would mean more than 6,000 kids in the county would find themselves without any health insurance.

In addition, Santa Cruz County's Healthy Kids program, which covers otherwise uninsured kids, is under assault. The poor economy, which is putting more children in need as their parents lose health insurance, is mostly at fault. The local program has had to put kids over age 5 on a waiting list, until additional funding is secured. In addition, the major statewide foundations that have provided much of the financial support for Healthy Kids are pulling back, saying they've funded it long enough. The foundations hoped the state would see that Healthy Kids pays for itself, and more, in fewer emergency room visits and fewer missed school days because kids are sick and untreated. Now, state help appears unlikely.

What's particularly egregious is that Healthy Kids has been an enormously successful program that only a little more than two years ago was the envy of every other similar program in California.

Today, Healthy Kids is almost totally dependent on help from Sutter Health and the Central California Alliance for Health.

So, what can be done? For one thing, legislators need to know that the health of children is of the highest priority. The refusal of the governor to accept any plans for increasing revenue in California means that closing a budget deficit of $20 billion will require draconian spending cuts for health and welfare programs.

Short term, more cuts might close the budget gap. Long term, the cost to local communities could be staggering.

With the prospects of help from state and federal sources faltering, the people of Santa Cruz County will have to step up, again, to renew their support for keeping kids healthy.