FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BURLINGAME – Entering its third successful year of educating parents about the state's public health insurance programs, the California Teachers Association's "Teachers for Healthy Kids" project has received a new, $1.2 million grant from The California Endowment health foundation.
The grant, the latest round of funding from the foundation, will fund ambitious community outreach programs in 2005 and 2006 to be coordinated by CTA and its partner in the project, the California Association of Health Plans. Since the fall of 2002, the project has enlisted thousands of teachers to reach out to parents of low-income students about the state's low-cost Healthy Families or no-cost Medi-Cal public insurance plans.
"The California Endowment continues to co-fund with CTA the Teachers for Healthy Kids project because it works and keeps students coming to school healthy and ready to learn," said Barbara E. Kerr, president of the 335,000-member CTA. "Healthy students are clearly better students. Thanks to teachers, more parents are learning every day that they can afford to keep their children healthy and ready to succeed in school."
The project's classroom outreach in lower-income school districts is making a difference. With several children's advocacy groups promoting Healthy Families and Medi-Cal, nearly 500,000 more children had health insurance in 2003 than in 2001, but 1.1 million kids were still without coverage that year, according to the latest data in a study released Tuesday by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The data was released at a Sacramento news conference launching a new coalition effort to insure all California children within three years.
Income levels determine eligibility for the state's health insurance. Under the Healthy Families program, for example, a family of four with an annual income of up to $47,136 is eligible for medical, dental and vision care for children aged 18 and younger. Monthly premiums are only $4 to $9 per child, up to a maximum of $27. Private health plans are how families access this coverage. Health coverage is free in the Medi-Cal program for families with very low or no income.
The new grant will fund several goals, including developing curriculum for teachers to use in targeted districts, expanding the project's work with community coalitions, training more teachers for classroom outreach, and adding even more helpful features to the project's website: www.teachersforhealthykids.com.