All children deserve a healthy start. Every child deserves to start life with a healthy body and mind so they can learn and explore the world around them.
COVERING KIDS AND FAMILIES
Covering Kids and Families is a national health care access initiative designed to help uninsured families enroll in public health care programs. In Minnesota, Covering Kids and Families project is managed by CDF Minnesota and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Covering Kids and Families has three major goals:
• Design and conduct outreach programs that identify and enroll eligible children and their families into public health coverage programs.
• Work with state and county agencies that administer public programs to help simplify the enrollment and retention processes.
• Help coordinate existing programs aimed at the same low-income families.
This initiative is important because approximately 68,000 of Minnesota's children do not have health care coverage. Another 275,000 adult Minnesotans are uninsured. Moreover, Minnesota has some of the highest racial disparities in health care coverage in the country. Without health insurance, these populations are at risk. Recent studies show that the uninsured experience significant decreased health outcomes and life expectancies than those who have health care coverage.
Estimates suggest that nearly half of all of Minnesota's uninsured population and nearly 70% of the uninsured children are most likely eligible for one of Minnesota’s public health coverage programs. Through our Covering Kids and Families project, CDF Minnesota aims to improve the lives of uninsured families by connecting them to available health coverage programs. The effort is part of the National Covering Kids and Families initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
NEW CDF Report Finds Minnesota Children Fall Through Cracks in Health Care Coverage
Minnesota's increasingly inaccessible health care system has allowed tens of thousands of children to fall through the cracks. An estimated 68,000 Minnesota children are without health care coverage, and the number of uninsured children younger than six-years-old has spiked up dramatically in recent years, according to a Children's Defense Fund Minnesota (CDF) study of the most recent state health care data.
Download the Report
NEW Health Care Chronicles: Another Child Left Behind
Health Care Chronicles are a series of health care stories about children who are uninsured due to four systemic health care problems.
Read the Latest Story
Our Initiatives
Covering Kids and Families in Minnesota sponsors several initiatives:
Covering Kids and Families Pilot Outreach Sites
Locations where families can receive assistance in applying for health care coverage.
Public Program Eligibility Web Site
A web site—www.coveringallfamilies.org—at which Minnesota families can determine their eligibility for a variety of public assistance programs.
Covering Kids and Families Volunteer Program
A program that helps families enroll in Minnesota's public health coverage programs.
Cover All Kids Coalition
Public and private health care organizations and community groups joined together to address access to health care coverage and preventive services.
Minnesota Low Cost Health Care Directory
A directory that explains the health care options for uninsured or poorly insured families. Includes information on Medical Assistance; MinnesotaCare; General Assistance Medical Care, and other low cost or free health services available in each county in Minnesota.
We also educate policy makers and the public on the importance and current accessibility of health insurance. See the Health Care area of our Library.
Health Care Information
Health Care Research and Policy Recommendations
Covering Kids and Families in Minnesota also receives support from the
Bush Foundation, Bremer Foundation, Delta Dental Minnesota, and the
Medtronic Foundation.
|
