Covering Kids and Families History
2005-2006
WCHP's Covering Kids and Families Task Force has been a partner with Cornerstone
Care's Covering Kids Campaign activities by enrolling eligible children
and adults into the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid
(MA), or the adultBasic Health Insurance Program (ABC). In Washington
County, as of June 2006, 2,378 children were enrolled in CHIP, 1,017 adults
were enrolled in ABC, and 707 Washington County residents were on the
waiting list.
On November 3, 2005, the task force held its fourth annual
conference titled "Healthy Kids to Healthy Adults, Common Ground
for Strong Communities," which facilitated the exchange of information
between human service providers and clients. The conference received high
praise with over 100 participants in attendence.
It was adopted during the WCHP strategic planning process to retire the
task force and incorporate the promotion of health insurance coverage
into all other task forces. This was because of the fact that the funding
for the community outreach worker was ending, and that the insurance companies
had picked up much of the outreach and enrollment activites. However,
the task force decided to continue their support for the yearly conference
in November to keep people up-to-date on issues concerning health and
will continue to update and distribute an information sheet on health
care resources.
2004-2005
WCHP's Covering Kids and Families Task Force has been involved with Cornerstone Care's Covering Kids Campaign activities in enrolling eligible children and adults into the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid (MA), or the adultBasic Health Insurance Program (ABC). In Washington County, as of June 2005, 2,355 children were enrolled in CHIP, and 868 adults were enrolled in ABC. Since demand exceeds capacity in the ABC Program, 1,796 Washington County Residents were on the waiting list.
On November 5, 2004, the task force held its third annual conference entitled "Healthy Kids to Healthy Adults, Common Ground for Strong Communities," which facilitated the exchange of information between human service providers and clients.
In response to the Medicaid program’s state budget cut, the task force sent letters to urge Washington County senators and representatives to restore funding. These reductions in benefits would have affected the sickest and most vulnerable citizens (senior citizens, children, people with disabilities, and low-income families) by limiting their access to needed health services.
2003-2004
WCHP's Covering Kids and Families Task Force has been involved with Cornerstone Care's Covering Kids Campaign activities in enrolling eligible children and adults into the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicaid (MA), or the adultBasic Health Insurance Program (ABC). In Washington County, as of June 2004, 2,463 children were enrolled in CHIP,
and 860 adults were rolled in ABC.
On November 21, 2003, the task force held its second annual conference entitled "Common Ground for Strong Communities," which facilitated the exchange of information between human service providers and clients.
The task force created and distributed a Health Care Resource brochure for Cover The Uninsured Week during May 10-16, 2004. The brochure listed free or low cost health services available to Washington County residents as well as resources for healthcare coverage. Brochures are available by contacting WCHP.
In response to news that the ABC program’s state budget was to be cut and gradually eliminated by the year 2015, the task force sent letters to urge Washington County Senators and Representatives to restore funding. WCHP has continued to advocate for the survival of the ABC program and has been joined by the Washington Branch of the NAACP in educating and mobilizing the community with letters and phone calls.
2002-2003
WCHP's Access to Care Task Force has been involved with Cornerstone Care's
Covering Kids Campaign activities in enrolling eligible children into
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and adults into the adultBasic
Health Insurance Program. In November 2002, the task force held a conference
entitled "Healthy Kids to Healthy Adults," which facilitated
the exchange of information between human service providers and clients.
2002 Community Health Assessment Findings
The task force agreed that the issue of people without health insurance
still needs to be addressed. 55% of survey responses identified problems
related to health care insurance, such as high health insurance and prescription
costs, lack of health insurance, and under-insurance, as the number one
health problem for Washington County. Based on the survey responses, there
is a conservative estimate of 5,681 Washington County residents without
health insurance. adultBasic is a program made possible though Pennsylvania's
tobacco settlement agreement that provides health insurance to a limited
number of uninsured between the ages of 19 and 64 who meet certain income
requirements and who do not have health care coverage. Since only 936
Washington County residents were enrolled in adultBasic as of July 2003,
and only 59 people in Washington County were on the waiting list, there
still remains an unmet need (see Figure 1).
In addition, the task force decided to concentrate on member updates and networking, especially in attending and promoting the annual Healthy Kids to Healthy Adults Conference. The task force also recognized the need to be more sensitive to literacy issues and suggested working with the Literacy Council of Washington County.
2001-2002
The Access to Care Task Force has been involved with the Cornerstone Care's
Covering Kids Campaign activities in enrolling eligible children into
Children Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) and adults into the AdultBasic Health
Insurance Program.
A subgroup of the Access to Care Task Force, the Minority Health Small Work Group, has participated in supporting the Center for Minority Health's application to the PA DOH for a regional planning grant to address local health disparities. This work group also worked on an application for cancer control program tailored to the African American population.
Another small work subgroup of the Access to Care Task Force, the Coordination and Outreach Work Group, came together to design the beginning stages of an integrated delivery system of health care to increase the quality of care for low income individuals with or at risk for chronic health problems. All three hospitals and three community-based health care centers sent representatives to a series of meetings. This small workgroup planned the distribution of funds from the Coordination and Outreach Grant that was received by WCHP in May 2002. Both Monongahela Valley Hospital's and The Washington Hospital's expansion of services will include case management for Congestive Hearth Failure patients. This project will allow the United Way of Washington County to produce a revised copy of a comprehensive guide to resources available in our county to be made available to the community, care givers, providers, and patients.
1997-2000
The Access to Care Task Force conducted community education on the availability
of free and low-cost health insurance for children. The group initially
adopted the Kids NOW Campaign to enroll eligible children in free and
low cost health insurance through the Medical Assistance and Children's
Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) programs. In 1999, the group joined Cornerstone
Care in the Covering Kids Program to expand the effort to identify and
enroll eligible children in health insurance plans. As of December 2001,
2,223 children were enrolled in the CHIP program. Current plans include
expanding enrollment to adults under the Adult Basic Coverage Plan made
possible by Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement funds.
1995-1996 Community Health Assessment
Findings
A large number of residents were found to be seeking medical care at local
hospital Emergency Departments. The survey revealed that 34 to 36% of
all households reported they had used an emergency department in the previous
12 months. In comparative state and national data, this figure usually
averaged 20 to 23% of the population. Those seeking such care tended to
be middle-aged (average age 45) married people with less education and
lower incomes. Many were homemakers and almost 70% had children.