 |
     |
|
Business
Journals DON'T FORGET CHILDREN'S HEALTH INITIATIVE From the March 21, 2003 print edition Desperate for cash to fix an enormous budget shortfall, senior San Jose officials are proposing to snatch millions of dollars from a special fund for education, anti-smoking programs and services for senior citizens. Thanks for getting the word out about the health care crisis in the "Health Care Headaches" (Topic) section that ran in the Feb. 28 edition. There is a beacon of light, however, that the section missed. I am referring to the Children's Health Initiative and the successful effort to provide health insurance coverage to children in Santa Clara County. In January 2001, Santa Clara County became the first county in the nation to commit to providing health coverage for its estimated 71,000 uninsured children when it created the Children's Health Initiative. CHI is an aggressive outreach program that, in just over two years, has signed up over 50,000 uninsured children for free or low-cost medical, dental and vision health coverage. The Children's Health Initiative offers
uninsured children three health
insurance programs: Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and the new
innovative Healthy Kids program. Your Health Care section
included
information on Medi-Cal and Healthy Families but neglected to
mention the Healthy Kids' health insurance option for children
who
live in Santa Clara County. Healthy Kids is also now available
in Children who are not eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families because the family income is too high or the children do not have the proper documentation may well qualify for Healthy Kids. Santa Clara Family Health Plan — a public not-for-profit health plan that provides high-quality, comprehensive health care coverage for those who do not have access to good health care at an affordable price — runs the Healthy Kids Program. It is also the local health plan for Medi-Cal and the designated Community Provider plan for the Healthy Families Program. For more information log on to http://www.scfhp.com or http://www.chikids.org. Janie Tyre VP of Marketing Santa Clara Family Health Plan CONTACTS Mike Zapler can be reached at
mzapler@mercurynews.com ###
|
|||
 |
||||
|
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or later required to view all PDF files Best viewed with Netscape 4.x or Internet Explorer 5.x and above. |
||||
|
Copyright © 2004 Santa Clara County |
||||
