Open Enrollment Window Closing

It’s open enrollment season and this year that means a little more in California.

Several state officials and health advocates gathered at UC-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento yesterday, to make sure parents understand there are some new rules about health care for children.

New federal and state legislation means that children with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied coverage, nor billed at excessive rates. And right now is the time to sign up children for coverage, according to Assembly member Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles.

“Kids will receive the health care they need, at a price their parents can afford,” Feuer said. “But it’s important that parents act during this open enrollment period to get their kids signed up for health insurance.”

Open enrollment ends Mar. 1, and coverage costs after that enrollment period could be higher, he said.

Feuer is author of AB 2244, which went into effect in California at the start of January. It reinforces the tenets of federal health care reform, by making sure children with pre-existing conditions can get coverage at reasonable rates.

“Parents may not realize that two-thirds of uninsured Californian children are already eligible for low-cost coverage through Healthy Families or Medi-Cal,” Kelly Hardy of Children Now said. Yesterday, Hardy’s organization distributed bilingual informational postcards that urged parents to insure their children, a program she called ”Give Your Child a Valentine’s Day Gift from the Heart.”

“This is a great opportunity to connect all children with the affordable health coverage they need to grow up healthy and strong,” Hardy said.