Health Care Coverage for LA County's Young Children On the Rise Due to First 5 LA OutreachSeptiembre 13, 2005 |
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| (LOS ANGELES, CA) – More young LA County children have health care coverage now than ever before, thanks to a targeted outreach and enrollment program spearheaded by First 5 LA during the past two years. According to a report just released by the Urban Institute, which was contracted by First 5 LA to conduct an external evaluation of the Healthy Kids initiative, early success of the outreach program is largely due to its grass-roots, community-based approach using the preferred language of the target population. During a time of when increasing health care costs have significantly reduced the number of Californians covered by employer-sponsored health care plans, First 5 LA and the Children's Health Initiative Coalition, have been credited with maintaining, and even increasing, coverage for children through its Healthy Kids outreach and enrollment program. From June 2003-June 2005, First 5 LA's outreach efforts resulted in 66,737 new applications for free or low-cost publicly-funded health care plans for children 0-5 years old. These included two existing programs, Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, as well as First 5 LA's new Healthy Kids plan, which covers uninsured children not eligible for either of the other publicly-funded plans. Of the new applicants, 54 percent or about 36,324 applied for Medi-Cal, 23 percent (15,304) applied for Healthy Families, and 20 percent (13,141) applied for Healthy Kids. In the last two years, First 5 LA has enrolled nearly 8,000 out of an estimated 14,000 eligible children (youngsters five years and under who are ineligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families) in Healthy Kids, a First 5 LA-sponsored health insurance plan administered by LA Care Health Plan. In 2003, First 5 LA committed $100 million over five years to fund the Healthy Kids initiative for children five years and under. Healthy Kids covers children from households that earn up to 300 percent of federal poverty guidelines, which is $58,056 for a family of four. As of June of this year, enrollment for Healthy Kids was at 56 percent of our target population, which puts us ahead of our goal of being at 50 percent enrollment at this time," said Evelyn V. Martinez, executive director of First 5 LA. "We're also pleased to note that we've been able to expand coverage to an additional 36,500 children 6-18 years of age through the fundraising efforts of the Children's Health Initiative Coalition (CHI) of Greater Los Angeles, co-convened by The California Endowment, the LA Care Health Plan, and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services," she added. "However, due to an overwhelming response, enrollment for 6-18 year olds was capped in June 2005, pending additional fundraising efforts. Enrollment is still open for children 0-5. "Hands-on application assistance and ‘the something-for-everybody-approach' have helped us steer families to appropriate state and local plans available," said Martinez. "We've also had good success with encouraging families to renew their annual enrollments so they don't lose coverage when they need it." First 5 LA is a child advocacy non-profit organization that invests public funds to improve the lives of children pre-natal to age five in LA County. Created by voters and funded by state tobacco tax revenue, First 5 LA champions health, education and safety issues benefiting young children and families. |
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