We work hard to make sure our families are happy and healthy.  But with the high cost of living these days, it can be difficult for many families to afford health insurance.  It can be a major problem.  Not just for your family, but the entire community.  The good news is there is a way for most Valley children to have access to the health care they need.

The Hospital Emergency Department is a busy place, set up to treat serious illness and injuries.  Often times, if a family does not have insurance this is where they end up.  Dr. Jerry Jacobsen is an Emergency Department Physician at Kaweah Delta Medical Center.  “The Emergency Dept is set up and designed for brand new emergency problems.  Whether it be severe pain, a car accident, heart attack, severe abdominal pain or chest pain, anything.  But cough and cold and ankle sprains are hopefully something that should go to a doctor’s office or a walk-in clinic.”

Dr. Jacobsen says every patient gets the same quality care, whether they are insured or not.  “I actually don’t look at insurance.  I just see people.  I just take everybody irregardless of what insurance they have.  I don’t look, so I don’t know.”

But it does create added stress for hospitals.  “The uninsured shifts some of the patient load or a lot of the patient load away from the primary care physician’s offices to the emergency department what it does is gets access to care for those people but it also increases the wait for everybody else.”

It’s a nationwide problem but it doesn’t have to be that way.  There are programs in place that can ensure our children have insurance.  One of them is called Healthy Kids.  Once enrolled, your child can be covered whether he or she is facing an emergency situation, illness or just needs a regular checkup.

Lucy Rouse says the Healthy Kids program was a big help for her family.  “My daughter had fallen off a playground structure and had broken her wrist.  I felt good knowing the hospital emergency services were covered by the Healthy Kids insurance program and not having to pay a hospital bill was a relief for my family.”

Healthy Kids Insurance Program
-Low-cost
-Medical
-Dental
-Vision

Healthy Kids is a low-cost program providing insurance for children.  The program offers medical, dental and vision benefits.  Lucy says, “I was able to provide my son with an eye exam and found out he needed glasses.”

Healthy Kids is available to children who don’t have private insurance through their parents.  Nor do they qualify for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. 

The program was launched in Tulare County in 2005 with help from First 5 Tulare County, part of the Children’s Health Initiative, a community collaborative which aims to improve health access needs for children.  Janet Hogan is the Executive Director of First 5 Tulare County.  “And health access is a large issue for us here in Tulare County and throughout the San Joaquin Valley.  Having enough physicians, having a way to pay for the medical care, at all ages is a challenge for us here.  So, we’re really proud to be able to say that there is a way for every young child in Tulare County to have health insurance.”

It’s imperative that every child have health insurance.  Not only does it mean a child is covered for emergencies, Dr. Ralph Kingsford of the Visalia Medical Clinic points out that it gives children access to their own private physician.  So, health problems can be detected early or prevented altogether.  “With lack of healthcare you also invariably have family’s tend to put off things that normally have been pretty straightforward things.  They delay it until the point it becomes much more complicated requiring a substantial more intervention.”

Dr. Kingsford says, many times, the high price of insurance is a deterrent.  “So, often times you have, people just play Russian Roulette and say okay well, we’ll take our chances.  On the one hand this affects them, because children especially in the first five years, tend to need to get a lot of immunizations.”

The cost of the Healthy Kids insurance depends on how much a family earns per year.  Janet says, “For a family with two children, the maximum monthly income is about 34-hundred dollars.  So, it’s really aimed towards working families,  on the income test.”  It can range from 7 to 15 dollars per child, each month.  Lucy adds, “As a working mother of two, the Healthy Kids insurance program was able to provide medical, dental and vision insurance for my children at a time that I could not afford insurance.  And the monthly premium payments were very affordable.”

If immigration status is a concern, there is no need to worry.  Janet says, “There are no repercussions from their children being insured under this program.  It’s not something that’s a particular question during the application process.  It just needs to be determined.  That’s all there is to it.  No follow up with the family, there is no reporting to any other agency regarding immigration status.  And parents can be confident as they seek this insurance program that they will not have any kind of problems because of participating.  Their children need healthcare and this is a way to do it.”

The application is just one page long.  Parents tell us, signing up is very easy.  Lucy describes her experience.  “I sat down with a certified application assistant.  And she helped me in completing and filing the application and within 30 days I received an approval letter.