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Friends of the Fourth
District:
As the Chair of First 5 LA, I am proud to be part of the coalition
of nearly 50 local organizations who have announced that they are
raising $112 million to fund health coverage for children in Los
Angeles County who are now without health insurance.
The Coalition, which calls its program the Children’s Health
Initiative of Greater Los Angeles, has already collected more than
$80 million in donations and pledges, which is being allocated to
the recent expansion of the Healthy Kids program to include children
through age 18. According to the Coalition’s leaders, the $112
million fund will last approximately three years, but the
Coalition’s larger goal is to create a permanent long-term solution
to provide 100 percent health insurance coverage for all children in
Los Angeles County within that time period.
The Children’s Health Initiative of Greater Los Angeles is one of
several health initiatives throughout the state working to provide
health insurance coverage to uninsured children. The $112 million
fund will cover the cost of health insurance premiums for children
who qualify, as well as ongoing efforts to increase enrollment into
other existing publicly funded health insurance programs.
With the rising healthcare costs that Californians are facing, more
and more children are left behind without any decent healthcare.
That’s why the Children’s Healthcare initiative is so important to
the people of Los Angeles. With the funds raised, children of low
income families will have the opportunity to receive the health care
that they need.
There are more than one million uninsured children and youth 18 and
younger in California, and more than 350,000 in Los Angeles County
alone, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Seventy-four percent are eligible for, but not enrolled, in Medi Cal
or Healthy Families and 90 percent reside in households with annual
incomes less than 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Level- which
equates to approximately $56,000 for a family of four. Nine percent
are immigrant children of legally documented immigrant parents, and
21 percent are children of undocumented immigrants.
Should you have any questions about this, or any other issue, please
feel free to contact my office at
(213) 974–4444.
DON KNABE
Supervisor, Fourth District
County of Los Angeles
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