Children's health insurance plan

The coalition working to increase the availability of health insurance for children announced that families may be signing up as early as July.

The steering committee for the Children's Health Initiative met recently to move forward with plans to insure at least 1,500 Humboldt County children.

The coalition is following a model across the state -- including Del Norte County, which started on this work more than a year ago -- to make sure all children can get health insurance. The effort includes signing up children who qualify for the state-subsidized Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs and creating insurance to offer to families who don't qualify for those programs.

The group learned that the California HealthCare Foundation has agreed to a five-to-one match to cover premiums for children signed up for the CaliforniaKids program. That will likely bring about $500,000 dollars into the county to provide health care for children of the working poor.

The program is being developed for those who don't have private insurance and aren't eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. Medical, dental and

vision care will be covered. Families will pay a small percentage of the premium but no more than $20 per child.

The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, the Community Health Alliance of Humboldt-Del Norte, First 5 Humboldt, St. Joseph Health System, Mad River Community Hospital, schools, clergy and others have been working since August 2005 to find a way to raise funds to provide insurance for all of Humboldt County's children.

”It has been remarkable how much support we've been able to secure in our community and throughout the state in such a short amount of time,” said Humboldt County Supervisor Bonnie Neely in a press release. Neely is co-chair of the Children's Health Initiative along with 5th District Supervisor Jill Geist.