Six Counties Announce Plan To Offer Health Insurance to Children, Teens
Officials from Colusa, El Dorado, Sacramento, Sutter, Tolo and Yuba counties on Tuesday announced that they will partner to provide medical, dental and vision benefits to 66,000 uninsured children by January 2006, the Sacramento Bee reports. The program, called Cover the Kids by 2006, is intended to offer health coverage at a reduced cost to residents younger than age 20 who do not qualify for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families.
Under the program, members would pay premiums and would be eligible to receive medical services at facilities in any of the six counties.
The program will cost about $11 million annually in Sacramento County where there are about 28,000 uninsured children, 18,000 of whom are eligible for reduced cost health care programs but are not enrolled. To date, the county has raised about $550,000 from community-based organizations, foundations and health care providers to plan the program.
Sacramento County supervisors will address funding for the program during budget hearings this summer (Jahn, Sacramento Bee, 3/2).