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Eureka Times-Standard
April 11, 2006
By Sara Watson Arthurs
FORTUNA--Del Norte County couldn't pay for a children's
health insurance program on its own, but by teaming up
with Humboldt and Mendocino counties it might be able
to, Del Norte Supervisor Dave Finigan said Monday.
County officials and health care advocates from all
three counties gathered at a conference on children's
health insurance at the River Lodge. Coalitions in each
county -- and many others across California -- are in
the midst of efforts to ensure health insurance coverage
for all county children.
The work includes several parts: First, getting those
children who qualify for state-subsidized Medi-Cal or
Healthy Families insurance signed up.
For children whose families earn too much money to qualify
for these programs but don't have health insurance through
their employer, counties across California are creating
their own health insurance packages. By joining together,
Finigan said, rural communities will be better able to
do so.
"Together, we could do some sort of insurance pool," he
said. The conference Monday was a chance for leaders
in each county's initiative to update their neighbors.
The afternoon concluded with discussion of a voter initiative,
currently in the signature-gathering phase, to fund children's
health insurance with increased tobacco taxes.
Kristen Gardner, project coordinator for Health Insurance
For All-Mendocino, said small counties have different
needs than large ones. For example, outreach to those
families who qualify for state-subsidized programs is
done on a broader scale in large urban counties than
in areas like Mendocino County, where "you have to really
target the exact families," she said.
Javan Reid, minister of the Grace Good Shepherd Church
in McKinleyville, said he hopes to get churches throughout
the community involved in the process by asking each
church to raise funds to pay the cost of one child's
health insurance premium.
Representatives of the three counties plan to meet again
in the fall to further discuss collaboration opportunities.
Allan Katz, executive director of the nonprofit Community
Health Alliance of Humboldt-Del Norte, added that the
group could also start exploring ways to increase health
coverage for adults.
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