IN A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO ENSURE that affordable health insurance is available to all children in California, Children Now, the Children’s Defense Fund and The Children’s Partnership will team with business, community and education leaders in a new campaign to make sure that eligible children get enrolled in Medi-Cal and the new Healthy Families program, and that additional steps are taken to provide health coverage to all uninsured children.

The 100% Campaign will focus its efforts in two key areas. First, it will support aggressive efforts to make sure that the families of more than 1 million uninsured children eligible for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families know about and understand their options, and actually enroll in the appropriate programs. Second, it will develop and support state laws and rules guiding children’s health insurance programs and and community and employer-based strategies to ensure that the approximately 670,000 children who remain uninsured get access to health insurance.

“Healthy Families and the accompanying changes to Medi-Cal eligibility are a tremendous first step toward making sure that all California children have access to health insurance,” says Wendy Lazarus, director of The Children’s Partnership. “But this is only the first step. Our job now is to make sure eligible children get enrolled in the programs, and to continue to push hard for additional actions to provide health insurance for the remaining children who will not be covered.”

Healthy Families offers health coverage to children ages 1-18 whose family incomes are too high to qualify for Medi-Cal, but not more than $27,300 for a family of three. California’s effort to provide health insurance to more uninsured children was made possible last year when Congress passed and President Clinton signed the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the largest expansion of children’s health coverage since the adoption of Medicaid in 1965. CHIP is a $4 billion-a-year national initiative to help states provide health insurance for uninsured children in low-wage working families.

Research conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research shows that more than 60 percent of uninsured California children are eligible for health insurance through the newly established Healthy Families program or expanded Medi-Cal access. The research estimates that under the new rules 666,000 or nearly 40 percent of uninsured children are eligible for Medi-Cal coverage. The new Healthy Families program will extend coverage to roughly another 400,000 or approximately 24 percent of uninsured children.

“With the beginning of Healthy Families and the expansion of Medi-Cal, more than 1 million children are eligible for health insurance,“ says Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now. “Making sure that all of them get enrolled will take a concerted effort from everyone who cares about kids.”

During the next year the 100% Campaign will conduct a comprehensive analysis of effective methods for providing health insurance to all children and make specific recommendations for achieving that goal. The campaign will also work to:

• Conduct and provide research and analysis to inform the policy making process and guide outreach efforts.

• Get the word out about new health insurance opportunities by working with key audiences such as small business leaders, school and child care organizations, churches, community organizations and others.