Below is an article from today’s Birmingham News that features the Alabama Child Caring Foundation. Barbara Hutchinson will be our speaker and share about this worthwhile project on August 20th.
Group covers uninsured children
News staff writer
It’s 20 years old and has taken care of more than 65,000 children in Alabama.
It’s a linchpin to Mayor Larry Langford’s plan to insure all of Birmingham’s school children currently without health coverage.
It’s a point of pride for the state, showcasing the creative ways Alabama assures health care for its children.
Despite all the accolades, many people know little or nothing about the Alabama Child Caring Foundation.
The private nonprofit group, founded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, enrolled its first child in March 1988 and today provides 10,000 children health coverage with low co-payments and no monthly premiums.
“Our goal would be to have every child in the state to have some form of health care,” said Phillip Pope, president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross. “One of our challenges is letting the public know this program exists.”
The program is for uninsured children younger than 19 who are Alabama residents and whose parents cannot afford coverage but make too much money to qualify for government coverage through Medicaid or All Kids. A family of four with an annual income of $42,401 to $49,820 would qualify.
To simplify enrollment, Medicaid, All Kids and the Child Caring Foundation share the same application. A parent fills out only one form and case workers figure out which program will work.
Enrollment in the Child Caring Foundation is at an all-time high, but, even so, 2,000 eligible children are on the waiting list, awaiting more donations to the charity to cover their participation. A donation of $240 covers a child for a year. Blue Cross matches each private donation dollar for dollar and absorbs the administrative costs.
The Child Caring Foundation is one of the top charities supported by Dr. Vance Plumb and his wife, Samantha. They believe in the mission and like Blue Cross matching their contribution.
“Our money is able to grow,” Samantha Plumb said. “You can’t really say that much in today’s economy… Whatever we can do to help children not slip through the cracks, we want to do.”
Langford has joined forces with the foundation to help cover as many as 5,000 Birmingham school children without health coverage. The eventual plan is to use a portion of tax credits Langford has promised Children’s Hospital for construction of its new hospital as the city’s contribution to the coverage, and Blue Cross would match that.
Although that money won’t be available immediately, Blue Cross hopes to start the added coverage this fall through the help of private donors.
“We’re going to try to do an aggressive outreach to get all of the children not now covered by health insurance,” said Jim Brown, Blue Cross spokesman.
Covers outpatient care:
The Child Caring Foundation covers doctors’ visits and other outpatient care, including outpatient surgery, but not hospitalization.
Pope said the program was designed that way intentionally. Restricting the program to outpatient care keeps costs affordable, allowing coverage of more children. The program’s goal is preventive care to ward off more serious illnesses.
“There’s not anyone in the community who thinks every child doesn’t deserve health care,” Pope said. “If we can get the children to have the preventive care, then they’re going to grow up to be healthier adults.”
Dr. Julie Dennis, a pediatrician at Over the Mountain Pediatrics, said at least 98 percent of children’s health care is outpatient. She said access to immunizations and routine doctors’ visits is the key to helping children develop properly. Her practice supports the Child Caring Foundation through donations and by treating the children it covers.
“There are still children who die of vaccine-preventable illnesses,” she said.
Children covered by the foundation can be seen by any doctor who accepts Blue Cross, which is virtually every doctor in the state. Their insurance cards look the same as all Blue Cross cards.
“We really didn’t want them to feel any different from people who pay $800 to $900 a month for health insurance,” Pope said.
Driving down the highway Pope noticed the variety of license plates dedicated to raising money for a plethora of causes. He wondered if Child Caring Foundation could get one, too. The question led to exactly that, and local departments of motor vehicles began selling the specialty tags this spring. Of the extra $50 fee, $41.25 goes to the foundation.
The state requires 1,000 pre-ordered tags before allowing their production, and Blue Cross had the commitments in record time, 60 days. Of the company’s 2,400 employees, 950 have signed up for one, paid for with their own money.
Joy Daugherty, founder and owner of Interiorscapes, has outfitted her fleet of 16 company vehicles with the tags.
“I never thought there would be something I felt strongly enough about to put on my tags,” she said.
But her niece died of cancer in 1984, and she said the only relief was that her brother’s family was fully insured.
“Part of my gut that got me involved in this was watching my family go through that and knowing having insurance was not a concern.”
E-mail: avelasco@bhamnews.com
