Orange County Supervisor To Request Funding for Children’s Health Initiative
Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa on Tuesday plans to ask the county Board of Supervisors to provide $2.1 million over the next three years to join the statewide Children's Health Initiative to expand health care coverage to uninsured children, the Orange County Register reports.
An estimated 40,000 to 75,000 children in the county are uninsured, and nearly 75% of the county's uninsured children are Latino, according to a county health care study released on Tuesday.
The project would provide health insurance for 1,800 children in the county. In addition, the funding would be used to hire 20 health care workers to enroll eligible uninsured children in state and federal health care programs, lead awareness campaigns and support private-sector programs.
Correa said the proposal does not address the 20,000 uninsured children whose parents are undocumented immigrants because his "colleagues have concerns with that issue, and I'm here to build." However, he said he will pursue private-sector funding to expand access to health care services among undocumented immigrants (Santana, Orange County Register, 10/18).