The federal government this week awarded $1 million to the Pima Community Access Program, a low-cost health-insurance program, to ensure more of the state's children have medical coverage.
The local, nonprofit Pima Community Access Program will administer the money, but work with 14 other agencies in four counties - Pima, Santa Cruz, Pinal and Maricopa. The aim is to sign up children who are eligible for the state's version of Medicaid, which is called the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS. It is for the state's poorest residents who are living at or below the federal poverty level, which is an annual income of $18,530 or less per year for a family of three.
The award was part of $40 million in grants the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced for efforts to identify and enroll children eligible for Medicaid and the federal Children's Health Insurance Program. Arizona's version of the federal Children's Health Insurance Program is called KidsCare. The program is for children from families with incomes that are too high to qualify for AHCCCS. However, the state has frozen enrollment in KidsCare because of budget constraints and enrollment in the program.
The Pima Community Access Program's grant will be focused on retaining and enrolling children from families that qualify for AHCCCS using Health-e-Arizona, an online application, said Michal Goforth, executive director of the Tucson-based organization. The two-year grants were awarded to 39 state agencies, community health centers, school-based organizations and nonprofit groups in 23 states. Grant amounts range from $200,000 to $2.5 million, with the largest grants going to the technology focus area.
The aim locally is to engage schools with high percentages of children eligible for free school lunches and will focus on adolescents. Facebook and Twitter in English and Spanish are expected to be used to communicate with youths and their families. A total of 36 teens will be trained to conduct peer-to-peer outreach.
A recent study by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that despite an increase in eligible children between 2008 and 2009, the total number of eligible but uninsured children declined from 4.7 million in 2008 to 4.3 million in 2009, in part due to outreach and enrollment efforts.
Among local agencies that will be involved in the grant are the Carondelet Health Network, the Children's Action Alliance, El Rio Community Health Center, Marana Health Center, St. Elizabeth's Health Center, United Community Health Center in Green Valley, the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona and the Pima County Health Department.