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Children in |
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SOUTH
BAY INSURANCE STIRS WIDER INTEREST |
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By Barbara Feder Ostrov |
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Article Launched:06/22/2007 01:32:58 AM PDT |
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Children in
The
subsidized health insurance program, the first of its kind in the country,
serves mostly poor, undocumented children. Regarded as a national model for
how to help uninsured kids, the program is financed mostly by tobacco
settlement money, county subsidies and foundation grants. Healthy
Kids, which will cost nearly $12 million this year and serves about 13,000
children, has been so successful that it now has a waiting list of about 900.
And as it becomes part of the debate over universal health care proposals in Results
released in April from an evaluation of Healthy Kids showed that after one
year in the program, kids missed fewer days of school because of illness, and
fewer parents reported their chil dren to be in poor health. In an
update to that study released today, researchers interviewed parents of 372
children who had enrolled in Healthy Kids four years ago and compared the
results with what the same families said after their first year of
enrollment. The new
findings show that the number of children who saw a doctor for a well-child
visit in the past six months rose from 42 to 53 percent - a clear sign that
more children were getting preventive health care. The proportion of children
needing multiple visits to a doctor because of illness declined from 20
percent of families interviewed to 10 percent, a sign that chronic illnesses
such as diabetes or asthma are being better managed.
Positive
story
"The
findings tell a very positive story for children on the program," said The results
come at a time when government-subsidized health insurance for children is a
hotly debated topic in Congress. Funding for a major national program known
as Healthy Families in In Santa
Clara County, the Healthy Kids program began in 2001 as a way to cover
children who, either because their family income was too high or because they
were undocumented, could not qualify for other government health programs
such as Healthy Families or Medi-Cal, which require legal residency. It has
since been replicated in other communities in Recently,
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., expressed interest in the Healthy Kids program
as well as other children's insurance offerings in talking with Assemblyman
Jim Beall, D-San Jose, sparking hopes that the presidential candidate might
incorporate elements of the plan into her health care proposals. Modest
expense Healthy
Kids accepts children regardless of residency status whose families earn up
to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or $62,000 for a family of four.
The vast majority of the program's children are undocumented. Families
pay from $4 to $6 per child per month to insure their children, who can
receive immunizations, medical and dental checkups, vision care, hospital
care, mental health care, prescription drugs and other services. There is a
small co-payment for doctor visits. Families
learn about Healthy Kids and other subsidized health insurance programs
through social service agencies, charity clinics and other community
services. Laura, a
9-year-old whose family moved to Her family
asked that her surname not be used because Laura and her parents are
undocumented. Laura doesn't
love the immunizations she gets for school, but she said she likes that her
family can afford health insurance for her and her 3-year-old sister. "I can
go to school healthy and have better grades," she said. Her mother
works as a cook in a local restaurant, and her father works as an
electrician. Neither has health insurance. "The
program is very important for immigrants," said Laura's mother, Tania.
"The kids are healthy. They have everything they need to stay
healthy." Waiting
list
On
Thursday, other families streamed into an enrollment office for government
health plans in the Mi Pueblo shopping center in As their
children played with Healthy Kids crayons and coloring books, some parents
were dismayed to learn about the waiting list for Healthy Kids. A family
recently arrived from Mexico, which had hoped to insure four children age 9
to 15, was told they would have to wait about eight months to be covered.
Until then, they said, they would use local medical clinics for the poor. For more information about Healthy Kids and other subsidized health insurance programs for children, visit www.chikids.org or call (888) CHI-5222. The study is available at www.Mathematica-mpr.com/health/chi.asp . |
About the Healthy
Kids program
Children's Health
Initiative,
Article
Launched: 06/22/2007 01:32:49 AM PDT
Children receive
medical, dental and vision care along with prescription medications.