Let's Enroll Eligible Kids in All Kids Now
The Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March, is already protecting families from some of the abusive practices of the insurance industry. When the new law is fully phased in by 2014, it will help families secure affordable health coverage that can’t be taken away when they become sick or lose their job. In the meantime, most uninsured children in Illinois don’t have to wait until 2014 as they are already eligible for stable, affordable health coverage through the All Kids health insurance program.
Illinoisans should be proud that our state ranks as one of the top in the nation at getting our children into health care coverage many of them qualify for. Now let’s finish the job and enroll the remaining children! To accomplish this, we must answer:
- Why are there still eligible but unenrolled children in Illinois?
- What can we do about it?
To address the “why” question, let’s look at a Kaiser survey that found parents often lack accurate information about Medicaid/CHIP programs, don't know how to enroll their children, or find the enrollment process difficult. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are All Kids Application Agents across Illinois ready to answer questions and enroll children.
To address the “what can we do” question, the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF)—an independent research organization—has extensive experience in this area. Georgetown CCF has identified numerous strategies states can take to enroll and retain more eligible children such as:
- streamlining the application process,
- making it easier for families to keep their children enrolled as long as they are eligible,
- linking with other public programs in which children may be enrolled, and
- expanding outreach and educational efforts to inform more parents about All Kids.
And the Shriver Center has created a toolkit to make it easier to plan and implement an All Kids enrollment event. Let’s finish the job and enroll the remaining kids!
Families interested in more information on enrolling their children in All Kids should contact 1-866-ALL-KIDS or go to www.allkids.com.
