Wednesday, 28 November 2007
High Number Of Medicaid and SCHIP Eligible Children In Texas Not Enrolled
In Texas, there are an estimated 1.5 million children that have no health insurance. But the state’s Health and Human Services found that over 850,000 of those uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Now Texas is increasing their efforts to enroll more children in the state health insurance programs. One effort in Houston has been using the communities’ churches as a way to get the word out about SCHIP and Medicaid. State officials are considering using the church model around the whole state.
“Texas is a very large state, and it’s very difficult to get that information out,” said outreach campaign manager, Geoff Wool. “We’re really looking at every opportunity that’s available to let families know about these programs.”
The state has also contracted $3.5 million with 28 organizations to help increase awareness of the programs and get children enrolled. And parents are getting calls if their applications were missing necessary information, rather than requests by mail.
Texas’ U.S. Senator John Cornyn visited Austin recently to get the word out, and hear about solutions to get more children enrolled, reported the Austin-American Statesman.
“The positive outreach efforts are encouraging, but there are still hundreds of thousands of low-income children across the state who are going without essential health care services,” said Senator Cornyn.
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