September 2001 • Volume 7 • Number 9
Covering Kids unveils aggressive campaign, toll-free number
BY JODY McAULAY
A nationwide effort to enroll all eligible children and their families in the State Children's Health Insurance Program recently received a big boost: A toll-free number has been established to connect inquiring callers from around the country to their state's coalition for SCHIP.
Covering Kids, an advocacy group that includes the Academy, announced the new number -- (877) KidsNow -- Aug. 8 in a back-to-school campaign kickoff in Washington, D.C. When someone calls that number, an answering system detects the state from which the person is calling and forwards the call to the local coalition for SCHIP.
But wait. There's more.
Yvonne Anderson, principal of Garrison Elementary, welcomed everyone to the kickoff of this year's campaign to enroll kids and their families in SCHIP. The event was at her school.In this year's expanded enrollment campaign, Covering Kids also is buying advertising in seven targeted cities: Albuquerque, N.M.; Baltimore; Boise, Idaho; Fresno, Calif.; Miami; New Orleans; and Springfield, Ill. These cities are known to have a multitude of working families who don't realize they are eligible for SCHIP.
Other efforts will occur during school sign-ups. Special attention is being given to families who have one or more children enrolled in free or reduced-cost school lunch programs. Recent research shows 3.9 million uninsured children participate in the lunch programs.
Although millions of children are enrolled in SCHIP, Covering Kids representatives believe 7 million more children and their families are eligible for coverage. The Academy and many state chapters promote the Covering Kids campaign with lobbying efforts and strategic partnerships that have helped reduce the number of uninsured children and family members.
For example, the Washington AFP helped establish a statewide telephone number that parents and others eligible for SCHIP could call to get information and enroll in the program, a precursor to the national toll-free number. And the Iowa AFP garnered a federal grant to work with one county to offer medical treatment, dental care, and developmental and preventive screenings for people using SCHIP. Information distributed at the campaign kickoff described these and other chapter efforts backing SCHIP.
The campaign kickoff featured the announcement that New York state had committed $20 million this year toward making sure its eligible children get signed up for SCHIP. And Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., displayed its Kids Medical Clinic, a mobile clinic that offers health care information and screenings as well as SCHIP enrollment assistance.
Check out the campaign Web site at http://www.coveringkids.org for more information about Covering Kids and free promotional materials, including action kits to put on local public awareness events. With your AAFP ID number, log onto the Academy's site at http://www.aafp.org/members/coveringkids/ for materials such as a sample letter to the editor and an opinion column for your local newspaper, and add yourself to the back-to-school campaign listserv by e-mailing a request to coveringkids@gmmb.com.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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