FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES – Public school teachers and health plans – partners in the statewide Teachers for Healthy Kids project – are part of an unprecedented community coalition launching an aggressive campaign today to provide health insurance for the estimated 350,000 uninsured kids in Los Angeles County.
The new Children's Health Initiative of Greater Los Angeles campaign will add more resources to the programs that health plans and teachers currently advocate to see that children in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest, will come to school healthy and ready to learn, said Barbara E. Kerr, president of the 335,000-member California Teachers Association.
CTA and the California Association of Health Plans formed the Teachers for Healthy Kids project nearly two years ago to inform parents about low-cost or no-cost public health insurance available through the state's Healthy Families or Medi-Cal programs. In Los Angeles County, the project has worked successfully with United Teachers Los Angeles, the CTA chapter representing 46,000 Los Angeles Unified educators.
"Teachers can't teach to an empty desk," Kerr said. "Los Angeles teachers know that healthy children are better students. Our Teachers for Healthy Kids project is proud to be a founding member of the coalition working for permanent solutions to the health care crisis in Los Angeles County."
"Los Angeles Unified teachers and nurses are on the frontlines of this crisis," said John Perez, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. "Student health care access and academic success will always be linked."
Health plans are how uninsured kids get access to the state's public insurance programs and are playing critical roles in the CTA project and the new Children's Health Initiative in Los Angeles, said Steve Tough, CEO of the California Association of Health Plans. "This new enrollment initiative is an extraordinary example of health plans and the community working to bring health care to all children," Tough said.
Under the state's Healthy Families program, 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. Coverage can be free for those low-income families eligible for the Medi-Cal program. The Teachers for Healthy Kids project is funded in part by the California Endowment foundation.
For more information, go to the project's website: www.TeachersForHealthyKids.com