HEALTHY FAMILIES: San Joaquin Enrollment Takes Off
The Stockton Record reports that "San Joaquin County has gotten a healthy start on Healthy Families." The county has the third-highest Healthy Families enrollment in the state, second only to Los Angeles and San Francisco counties. To date, 516 children have been signed up in the county; statewide enrollment stands at 7,000 and is predicted to reach 200,000 by next summer. "We're very happy to see the way that San Joaquin County has put all of its organizations together to work things out and reach more children," said Irma Michel, Healthy Families' manager of eligibility and enrollment. The Record reports that San Joaquin's impressive numbers -- which have been getting state officials' attention -- are due in large part to a coalition of local health care and social service agencies.
Go Get 'Em
The group -- which includes the county Health Care Service, Channel Medical Centers, Delta Health Care and the Council for the Spanish Speaking, or El Concilio -- originally organized to promote Medi-Cal, but has been "aggressively marketing" Healthy Families since the beginning of the year. Members of the coalition have trained volunteers to help families fill out the application process. The coalition members "tend to go out to where the people are rather than waiting for the people to come to them," said David Hurst of the Health Plan of San Joaquin, the county's community provider. As part of the outreach, "neighborhood leaders will get paid to go door-to-door in those areas of the county where demographics show an abundance of low-income residents" (Spence, 8/24).