CHIP: KY, AZ Lure Kids with Creative Campaigns
With a goal of full enrollment by Nov. 25, KCHIP, Kentucky's low- cost children's health insurance program, is launching a public awareness campaign about the program's benefits led by country music singer Naomi Judd and her daughter, actress Ashley Judd. At the same time, the state has decided to draft a plan to broaden eligibility to include children whose families earn up to 200% of the federal poverty level ($32,000 for a family of four), the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The expanded eligibility is expected to cover 20,000 otherwise-uninsured children. All told, the program would cost $63 million, $50 million from the federal government. KCHIP advising council members urged the cabinet to enroll all eligible children by November 25, one year after it received federal approval. A "KCHIP show-and-tell" at the Frankfort Civic Center on June 23 begins with an information session led by the Judds. The program is designed to "show health and school officials how to best distribute KCHIP information, identify eligible children and help families apply." It will be broadcast to numerous counties and will be followed by radio and television ads to air throughout the summer (Richardson, 5/26).
A Scoop of Health Care Coverage
Along with Kentucky, Kids-Care, Arizona's CHIP is hoping to reach the state's remaining 217,000 eligible children in a way the kids are sure to notice. The Arizona Republic reports that beginning this week, grocery bags, pizza boxes and egg cartons will bear Kids-Care advertisements, and a local business owner, Delicias de Michoacan, will feature the Kids-Care logo on 60 carts used to peddle paletas, a frozen dessert, while training paleta peddlers in "the basics of Kids-Care enrollment." Additional awareness efforts include TV ads broadcast in English and Spanish, as well as a van, currently on a statewide tour, that stops at parks, fast-food restaurants and video stores to enroll children while they enjoy playing on its inflatable "party bouncer." Focus groups have revealed that parents' concern for their children is sometimes obscured by reluctance to depend on government handouts. "The best approach is to reach parents and kids when they were out doing things that were fun and didn't involve illness or the kids being sick," said Robert Johnson, a spokesman for Riester-Robb, the same advertising firm that supplied the state with anti-tobacco ads (Thompson, 5/26).