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Child Health Information Project
Children's Defense Fund
October 19, 2000
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In this issue:

* NASMD MEETING FOCUSES ON INCREASING HEALTH CARE ACCESS TO ADOLESCENTS

* NATIONAL CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING PREVENTION WEEK, OCTOBER 22-28

* GET THE FALL EDITION OF "SIGN THEM UP: A QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER ON CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAMS"

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NASMD MEETING FOCUSES ON INCREASING HEALTH CARE ACCESS TO ADOLESCENTS

October 18 - Developing strategies to cover the 2.3 million adolescents eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program  (CHIP) was a primary focus of the National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD) meeting in Bethesda, Maryland.

"Adolescents are almost an invisible group in this nation regarding health care coverage," said Dr. Marsha Lillie-Blanton, Vice President for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. While the health care needs of adolescents "tend to be of lower cost and preventive in nature," Dr. Lillie-Blanton said, "the challenge is reaching this invisible population" before unmet health needs become more chronic and long-term as teenagers reach adulthood.

Close to two-thirds of the roughly 3.7 million adolescents aged 13 to 18 currently uninsured in the U.S. are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.

Cindy Mann, Director of the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) Family and Children's Health Programs Group, said issues states need to address in covering adolescents include targeting outreach efforts specifically at teens, allowing adolescents to enroll in health programs on their own, ensuring benefits are designed to meet the needs of teenagers and ensuring children are not dropped from one program or provider when they reach adolescence. 

Among the health benefits that NASMD meeting presenters concluded should be available to adolescents are: coverage for both physical and psychological services; periodic preventive health screenings; care for acute and chronic illness and disability; care management; dental, vision and hearing services; family planning-related coverage; a host of pregnancy care services; screening and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases; immunizations; substance abuse counseling and treatment; and mental health benefits.

Dr. Claire Brindis, Executive Director of the National Adolescent Health Information Center at the University of California, San Francisco, asserted that spending on health care is cost effective. For example, an office-based program to reduce high-risk behaviors saved money when it prevented such behaviors in just 5.6% of adolescents. And school-based health centers saved up to $2 for each $1 spent in efforts such as reducing the number of pregnancies, limiting the use of emergency rooms, and promoting early prenatal care, Dr. Brindis said.

Source: "States to cover teens eligible for Medicaid, CHIP," Reuters Health Press Release, www.reutershealth.com , October 18, 2000.
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NATIONAL CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING PREVENTION WEEK, OCTOBER 22-28

The U.S. Senate has declared October 22-28, 2000 National Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (NCLPP) Week. The Campaign for a Lead-Safe America has developed educational materials addressed to parents and other caregivers, landlords, and painters, which can be used for education and outreach during NCLPP Week.

They include: fact sheets, brochures, a community outreach kit, radio public service announcements, transit ads, and more. These materials are available free of charge.

To order Campaign materials, please contact Stacy Block or Christina Fenton at Vanguard Communications/Campaign for a Lead-Safe America at 202.331.4323, 202.331.9420 (fax), or lead-safe@vancomm.com. 

For more information on NCLPP Week, contact Betsy Marzahn or Ralph Scott at the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning at 202.543.1147 or bmarzahn@aeclp.org. 

To learn more about childhood lead poisoning, visit the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning's Web Site at www.aeclp.org 

Source: AECLP September/October 2000 Newsletter
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GET THE FALL EDITION OF "SIGN THEM UP: A QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER ON CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAMS"

The Children's Defense Fund's Child Health Implementation Project has FREE copies of "Sign Them Up" available. This edition of the newsletter focuses on comprehensive immigrant outreach through the building of community partnerships. Three-fourths of children in immigrant families are United States citizens, and are thereby eligible for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or Medicaid.  More work needs to be done to inform and educate immigrant parents about the availability of health insurance for their children and alleviate any confusion, fear or cultural barriers that may be preventing immigrants from utilizing CHIP or  Medicaid.

The newsletter highlights several unique immigrant outreach approaches from the states of California, Illinois, New York, and Texas.

Also included in the fall edition of "Sign Them Up":

* Hot Off the Press...the latest on the "Beneficiary Improvement and Protection Act of 2000," passed by the House Commerce Committee on September 26th;

* National News - CHIP/Medicaid and Immigration Law: Clarifying the Confusion;

* The latest Census Bureau data on "Who are the Uninsured"; and

* Valuable Web Site resources on a wide range of immigration- related topics.

If you would like to request a copy of the fall edition of "Sign Them Up: A Quarterly Newsletter on Children's Health Insurance Programs," please contact Bianca Jones by calling 202.662.3658 or by emailing her at bjones@childrensdefense.org 

When requesting a newsletter, please include the following information:

Name
Organization
Address
Telephone Number
E-mail address
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