CONTRA COSTA: Officials Propose Plan to Cover Uninsured Kids

      Contra Costa health officials today will present a plan to the Board of Supervisors that aims to help the nearly 8,000 uninsured children in the county. The plan is designed to increase enrollment in the state's underused health programs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Some of the plan's goals include identifying qualified children through school lunch programs, simplifying the enrollment process and increasing outreach to immigrants. County Health Services Director William Walker said that many parents do not know that their children are eligible for programs. He also noted that immigrants are often hesitant to inquire about services. "There's a myth out in the Hispanic community in particular ... (they feel) that they should not be utilizing services that would hinder their chances for citizenship," Walker said. A Health Insurance Policy Program report produced last year found that while the state's Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs could potentially cover 1 million of the state's 1.85 million uninsured, the program's structure provided serious obstacles for enrollment. Contra Costa officials are unsure of the cost of the proposed plan (Johnson, 2/1).