March 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 3
• Grassroots Advocacy •
CHIP success accents need for more primary care physicians
BY SHERI PORTER
The influx of new enrollees in the Children's Health Insurance Program has created a logjam of patients.
Audrey Boyd, M.D., of Columbia, S.C., a member of the AAFP Commission on Legislation and Governmental Affairs, was an early CHIP advocate. She now says the same children who recently lacked insurance now lack medical "homes."
"These children are being signed up, but they need doctors on the other end to take care of them -- it will do no good to sign up 100,000 children if they have no physicians to go to," she says.
Last April, Boyd introduced a resolution at the AAFP National Conference of Women, Minority and New Physicians asking the Academy to formulate a national program to educate physicians and increase awareness of all facets of CHIP, including the dire need for primary care physicians. The commission is studying the resolution.
Boyd says much work still needs to be done to get children signed up for the program. "It won't be the physician signing up the kids. You need workers out in the communities getting them signed up," she says, adding that South Carolina has a strong outreach program.
"The applications can be anywhere -- the more diverse the distribution, the more enrollments that will come out of it," Boyd says.
After a slow start two years ago, enrollment in CHIP doubled in 1999, bringing current enrollment to 2 million children. But it's still far short of the federal goal of 5 million.
Physicians and parents can get state-specific information by calling, toll-free, (877) KIDS NOW [543-7669]. The Web site www.insurekidsnow.gov features detailed information about each state's plan.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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