CONTRA COSTA COUNTY: Officials Offer New Plan to Reach Uninsured

      Contra Costa County health officials are launching a "new strategic plan" to reach the county's uninsured families and children. The Medi-Cal and Healthy Families Enrollment Outreach Strategic Plan for Year 2000 outlines five goals to increase the rolls of the state's "under-utilized" health programs. The objectives are: enhancing contact with eligible children through the free school lunch program; reassuring immigrant populations that receiving care will not impact citizenship eligibility; improving resources for outreach and follow-up programs; coordinating agencies' activities to make them more efficient; and creating a simplified enrollment process. "There are families and children who should be getting health care, including immunizations, and early detection of preventable and easily treated health problems," County Health Services Director William Walker said in a news release. Developed through a coalition of county departments, community organizations, health centers and providers and child care agents, the program is sponsored by Contra Costa Health Services and the Contra Costa Health Access Coalition ( Contra Costa Times, 2/24).