BY DARLENE DONLOE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Aurtisha Jackson is a 30-year-old, occasionally homeless, unemployed single mother of three — with two of her kids currently under a doctor’s care.

Twice a week, her son, 11-year-old JoDariyen, walks into the doctor’s office at White Memorial Medical Center to undergo immuno therapy, receiving a shot in each arm to combat his many allergies, including allergies to trees, grass, mold and dust mites.

The fifth-grader, who has had the condition since he was 5, has to participate in the same medical procedure for up to five years, his mother said.

Prior to his diagnosis, JD, as he’s called, was often in and out of the emergency room every three or four months with red eyes, a swollen throat and labored breathing. Turns out he also has asthma.

His 2-year-old sister, Maliya, is on a daily antibiotic and awaiting an operation to correct an abnormality involving her kidneys. Their 6-year-old sister, Christina, is in good health.

When the family was homeless and the kids needed a doctor, or JD had to receive treatment, Jackson would either catch a bus, walk to a hospital, or, during emergencies, get a taxi voucher from the shelter to get there quickly.

Some trips could take up to three hours, minus the stint at the hospital.

While it sounds laborious, that was only a small part of Jackson’s homeless reality.

But she doesn’t complain.

Jackson didn’t let the fact that she was homeless stop her from getting her children’s needs met. She did research, found out about Medi-Cal, found a shelter and mapped out routes for buses, walks and taxis.

“When your child is sick, you don’t think about the steps you need to take to get them to a doctor,” said Jackson, who last month was given the use of a car by her father. “You don’t think about it. You just do it. You’re just thankful your children have health care and can see a doctor.”

With President Obama’s health care reform law often in the news, as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget cuts, Jackson, who had a hysterectomy last year and has had three blood transfusions in the last five years, is grateful she and her children have Medi-Cal.

Medi-Cal, which is a vital link for children who have no other access to affordable health coverage, insures millions of children in California.

The number of California children who were uninsured all or part of the year rose from 1.1 million in 2007 to about 1.5 million in 2009, the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research reports.

“I don’t know all the numbers,” said Jackson, who until May 2009 lived in the Lydia House at the Long Beach Rescue Mission and currently lives in Torrance. “But I know things are bad. I’m just grateful. When I was in the shelter, I always kept my faith. I’m a firm believer. He (God) said He would meet our needs and I believe him. I do know that if anything changes, I could be stuck.”

Jackson, who doesn’t work because of the hectic doctor’s appointments for her two children, said she often doesn’t have two pennies to rub together. She counts health care coverage as a priority and a blessing because she knows her circumstances could be worse.

The St. Louis native knows she’s doing better than the thousands of others who are part of Los Angeles County’s homeless statistics.

About 254,000 men, women and children experience homelessness in the county during some part of the year and roughly 82,000 people are homeless on any given night, according to the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty at the Weingart Center.

African Americans make up about half of the county’s homeless population — disproportionately high compared to the percentage of African Americans in the county overall (about 9 percent).

About 33 to 50 percent are female with 20 to 43 percent being families, typically headed by single mothers.

Looking like a teenager with her hair in a ponytail and dressed in blue jeans and sneakers, Jackson, whose petite, narrow frame belies her age, says she can only focus on the day-to-day health and well-being of her children.

To understand what Jackson goes through on a daily basis, you’d have to walk a mile or more in her shoes — literally.

For almost a year, while living in a shelter, she frequently walked up to six hours a day to handle everyday business, which included getting JD to the hospital twice a week, then back to school, Christina to school and Maliya to day care.

Then, she’d have to go about her daily business, before reversing the routine to get her children back to the shelter each night. While some would crumble at the seriousness of her reality, Jackson, whose hair at one time fell out due to stress, has proven to be a fighter and survivor.

“I count it all joy and keep going,” said Jackson, who has lived with several relatives over the years, some of whom lost their homes. “When I get upset about the situation, I just get moving. The hard part comes when you complain about your circumstance. I just get up and do it. Make it happen.”

When asked if she understands President Obama’s health care reform law or the full implications of Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget cuts, Jackson admits she doesn’t.

“I’m too busy focusing on my kids’ health,” she said. “I haven’t had the time to get in tune with any of it. I’m very interested in learning about it.  When I get a minute, I’ll try to focus.”

On May 14, in an effort to close a $19 billion budget deficit, Schwarzenegger released a revised state budget proposal that would eliminate California’s welfare-to-work program, a move that would affect 1.4 million people, most of them children. The budget includes major cuts to health and welfare programs for the poor and needy. Previous benefits that were cut in recent years include dental and vision care for Medi-Cal patients.

However, a new federal law requires that vision coverage be restored. If he doesn’t receive $6.9 billion in new federal funds he says the state is owed, Schwarzenegger also proposes ending the Healthy Families program, serving 900,000 low-income children. The program is low-cost insurance for children and teens. It provides health, dental and vision coverage to children who do not have insurance and do not qualify for free Medi-Cal.

“As Democrats, our response was we were puzzled,” said Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento). “We didn’t think it was very productive of the governor of one of the largest states in the union to be threatening the president and threatening the Congress. However, it is true to say that California gets less than its fair share of federal funding.”

To many, including other Democratic leaders, it looks as if programs benefiting the poor received the brunt of the governor’s drastic cuts. Jones, who chairs the health committee, said the Democrats are poised to fight Schwarzenegger’s plans. He would like to see a single-parent universal health care program. To that end, Jones is backing AB 2578, a health insurance rate regulation bill, as well as AB 1383, a hospital provider fee that could raise $1.8 billion. He also co-authored, alongside Sen. Mark Leno and others, SB 810, a Universal Health Care Act, which guarantees comprehensive health care benefits to every California resident.

“I’m passionate about the health care situation in California because I went to law school to represent low-income families and individuals,” Jones said. “I’ve seen first hand how families played by the rules and worked really hard in this state and still couldn’t get ahead. You know they put their kids to bed at night, and if the child gets sick, they don’t know how they’re going to get health care for that child. That’s why I care.”

When asked if she was surprised the governor’s proposed budget cuts were top-heavy with programs affecting the poor, Kelly Hardy, director of health policy with Children Now, said, “I’m not at all surprised.”

“That’s often where the cuts fall,” .she said. “Poor people and children don’t have as much (of) a lobbying presence in Sacramento.”

And while the cuts don’t directly affect her organization, Hardy said it does make her advocacy work harder because she has to “play defense against the budget cuts rather than work on proactively making things better for children.”

Hardy pointed out that in 2009, there were about 1.5 million uninsured children in California. She added that there are 900,000 children currently eligible for existing public programs but aren’t enrolled.

“Children’s health care coverage in the state of California has reached a turning point,” said Robert Phillips, Health & Human Services Director of The California Endowment. “California has more uninsured children than when we started our investment 10 years ago.

“Many of the recent gains we’ve made in the last five to six years have eroded. The number of children with employer-sponsored insurance decreased in the last five years from 52 percent to now under 47 percent. Most families are losing employer-based coverage.”

Jones said he doesn’t understand why this nation has yet to come up with a way to provide universal health care.

“All other Western industrialized nations and some non-Western nations have figured out how to provide health care to their population at a fraction of the cost of what we’re doing,” Jones said. “We have some people without health care at all — and it’s just outrageous!”

Today, Jackson awaits word on when her daughter will be scheduled for an operation. In the meantime, she’s learned that a paperwork snafu may find her homeless once again.

But Jackson is taking the news in stride.

“I can’t worry about it right now,” she said. “It’s one day at a time for me. I have to take care of my kids. I just want them to be healthy. I believe He will work it out.”

Darlene Donloe was awarded a fellowship from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and New America Media to research and report on children’s health issues.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.