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San Jose Mercury News
June 30, 2005
By Karen de Sá
This week, Santa Clara County moves one step
further on its march toward universal health care for children.
On Friday, the Santa Clara Family Health Plan
will be insuring an additional 1,000 children now on a waiting
list--providing coverage for kids whose parents make too much
to qualify for public assistance but too little to pay for
health care themselves.
The Healthy Kids insurance plan will expand
thanks to a $1.5 million funding increase from FIRST 5 Santa
Clara County, a commission distributing the state's tobacco
tax among early-childhood development programs.
The commission is increasing its $3 million
annual contribution to fully cover the higher premiums of
children 5 years old or younger. That, in turn, frees up health
plan funds to serve more children ages 6 to 18.
Six-year-old Andra is among the lucky ones.
She hasn't seen a dentist in two years because her parents
have not been able to afford health care since moving to
San Jose from Trinidad and Tobago. In order to start school
here, she had to have a routine medical exam "that cost me
an arm and a leg and my body," said her mother, Indra
Sieunarine.
Now, Sieunarine is celebrating. She was just
informed that after seven months on the waiting list, Andra
will receive coverage beginning next month.
"I am so relieved,"' she said. "I
can't begin to explain how important this is."
Santa Clara County's Healthy Kids insurance
program, launched in 2001, has been copied throughout California
and is considered a national model. It provides full medical,
dental and vision coverage for the children of parents who
are working--often two or more jobs--but who earn too little
to bear the high costs of health care. They pay monthly premiums
as low as $4 per child.
So far, 10 other California counties have
adopted the model of locally funded health coverage that meets
the needs of families who are not eligible for other government-subsidized
programs. An additional 18 counties are developing similar
programs, which do not discriminate against undocumented immigrants.
In Santa Clara County, community outreach
has been so effective that the waiting list continues to grow.
Even after the 1,000 uninsured children receive coverage in
July and August, 850 will remain on the waiting list, possibly
for as long as eight months.
"I would love to see there be no waiting
list," said Leona Butler, CEO of the Santa Clara Family
Health Plan, which administers Healthy Kids. "That just
really depends on our ability to raise the money and people's
generosity."
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