Child Health Information Project
Children's Defense Fund
August 18, 2000
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In this issue:
* ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION LAUNCHES BACK-TO-SCHOOL CHIP ENROLLMENT INITIATIVE
* STUDY FINDS THAT MANY CHILDREN ARE NOT PROPERLY SECURED IN MOTOR VEHICLES
* HRSA LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE ON COMMUNITY HEALTH STATUS INDICATORS
* NEW PUBLICATION TARGETS SPANISH-SPEAKING POPULATION
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ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION LAUNCHES BACK-TO-SCHOOL CHIP ENROLLMENT INITIATIVE
Washington, D.C., August 9 - The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has announced that it will spend as much as $26 million to inform parents with uninsured children who qualify for low-cost or free health care coverage that their children may be eligible. The Foundation released a study showing six out of ten parents whose children may qualify for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) or Medicaid do not believe that these programs apply to them. Yet 82 percent of these parents said if they knew their children qualified for coverage, they would apply. The Foundation launched the three-year public education campaign with the start of a nationwide back-to-school health care coverage enrollment drive.
While stigma is often cited as the reason why more parents have not enrolled their children, the study finds that three out of four parents whose kids qualify feel positively about Medicaid and SCHIP.
The public education campaign includes:
We're pleased to see the momentum building for putting children's health care coverage on every parent's back-to-school checklist," said U.S. Department of Education Secretary Richard Riley.
For more information on the initiative, visit the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's web site at:
www.rwjf.org