About Healthy Kids: In the News
Fund Raising begins for low-income kids' health coverage
Published on May 5, 2005
© 2005 - The Press Democrat
Byline: Bleys W. Rose
The Press Democrat
Page: B1
A countywide campaign to secure funding and medical services to cover all 8,000 uninsured children in Sonoma County was launched Wednesday by a medical and health care coalition.
Healthy Kids Sonoma County is modeled on similar programs in other counties aimed at extending health care to children under 19 who are generally not covered by state programs such as Medi-Cal.
"We want this to be a system that opens access for every uninsured child in this county," said Dr. Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, the county public health officer and chairwoman of the Healthy Kids program. "And once they are in, we want them to continue because the emergency room is no place for basic medical care."
The estimated price tag would be about $3.3 million a year beginning in 2007.
Already, $550,000 has been contributed from the state's cigarette tax fund and another $500,000 was pledged by the area's major medical providers, St. Joseph Health System, Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente.
Another $1 million annually will be sought from private companies. The rest would come from state and county funds, grants and donations from foundations.
Mark Kostielney, retired county health services director who heads the fund-raising effort, said he would solicit companies in the wine industry, the high-tech industry and real estate for money.
"The business community that buys health insurance for its employees knows those premiums are also paying for the uninsured," Kostielney said. "It is the right thing to do and it contributes to a work force that has healthy families."
Healthy Kids program directors said almost 90 percent of the $3.3 million program would fund premiums paying for coverage in a health maintenance organization-style relationship with medical services providers. Much of the medical care is likely to be centered at community clinics, while hospitals would provide acute care.
Maddux-Gonzalez said Santa Clara County's program experienced a surge in low-income family children seeking treatment from primary care physicians and in visits for preventive medicine. Counties with well-established Healthy Kids programs include San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, San Joaquin and Los Angeles.
First Five Sonoma County, a quasi-government agency that distributes cigarette tax money from Proposition 10 funds, said Wednesday it would contribute $550,000 annually for five years. Medical services will be coordinated by the county Department of Health Services, with funding supervised by the Community Foundation Sonoma County.
You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or brose@pressdemocrat.com.