Family resource centers contribute to Trusted Hand approach to reaching out to uninsured families
In 2009, The Trust awarded three-year grants to 18 organizations to provide eligibility screening and application assistance to traditionally hard-to-reach, uninsured children and families for Medicaid and Children's Health Plan Plus (CHP+). These organizations also provide encouragement and help for parents to use their insurance benefits for well-child visits and recommended health screenings, and assist with reenrollment.
The Trust partnered with community-based organizations that already had well-established, trusting relationships with vulnerable families. By providing additional resources, The Trust was able to support application assistance programs being offered by these "trusted hand" organizations in a wide array of community settings and service models across the state. The grantees include an affordable housing provider, after-school and youth drop-in programs, head start programs, community clinics and a hospital, agencies serving low-income families, programs for homeless families and abused children, a school district and collaborations among multiple entities coordinated by county governments.
During the past two years, these grantees have collectively touched the lives of 26,000 Coloradans through outreach services and provided more than 16,750 children and families with assistance in applying for public health insurance.
And yet, as effective as these grantees have been at reaching traditionally hard-to-reach populations and enrolling them in public health insurance, the recession has dramatically increased the demand for their services as newly unemployed families across the state began losing their health coverage. Despite successes to date, there are still an estimated 176,000 uninsured children in Colorado. As well, each year between 25,000 and 30,000 low-income pregnant women eligible for Medicaid or CHP+ deliver a baby. There remains much work to be done.
While the Accountable Care Act holds the promise of insuring these vulnerable populations in the not so distant future, we commend our grantees – the community-based organizations that continue their critical work to meet the immediate needs of the clients they serve and help connect them to health care.
by Deidre Johnson, Program Officer, The Colorado Trust | original link
