KERN COUNTY: Local Provider Selected For Healthy Families

      The state has picked Oildale-based Kern Family Health Care to provide coverage for the state's new Healthy Families insurance program in Kern County, the Bakersfield Californian reports. State officials chose a "locally based managed care group" because "it can offer the benefits cheaper than the 11 competing companies based out of the area." Around 15,000 Kern County children will be eligible for the program, which "will offer medical, dental and vision coverage for $4 per month per child but no more than $27 per month for each family." Kern County Board of Supervisors Chair Pete Parra, said, "This is a big step toward making sure children, and families, stay healthy." Children ages one to 19, from families with incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty level, and who are not eligible for Medi-Cal, may qualify for the Healthy Families program (Bedell, 5/1).