Kids’ health care sign-ups move slowly, By Mike Dennison, July 12, 2010, Billings Gazette: “Enrollment for Montana’s expanded children’s health insurance plan continues to inch upward but is still far short of the 30,000 additional kids that supporters hoped for by year’s end, the latest numbers show. Healthy Montana Kids, created by a voter-passed initiative in 2008, has added about 6,600 children to government-funded health insurance plans during the first seven months of its existence. The program offers free health insurance for children in families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, or $45,800 for a family of three. Anna Whiting Sorrell, the state’s top public health official, said late last week that she thinks the goal of adding 30,000 kids is still reachable and that her agency is mounting ‘some major additional outreach’ to sign up more children…”
Tag: Montana
Children’s Health Insurance Coverage – Montana
State faces backlog of applications for Montana Healthy Kids, By Mike Dennison, December 10, 2009, The Missoulian: “Two months into the state’s new, expanded children’s health insurance program, only about 740 kids have been added, as health officials try to erase a backlog in processing applications. State officials also have held off on a planned statewide advertising blitz for the new program, known as Healthy Montana Kids, while they work through delays in the approval process. ‘We want to make sure our eligibility (processing) is working as it should,’ said Anna Whiting Sorrell, director of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. ‘We don’t want to frustrate people.’ Yet Whiting Sorrell said the state is still encouraging families to apply for the programs. ‘Our message to all Montana families who would like health coverage for their children is, apply now,’ she said. ‘Even though we’re experiencing a heavy workload, people should still apply.’ Healthy Montana Kids, approved by voter initiative in 2008, expands two government health insurance programs – Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan – with the goal of covering an additional 29,000 children in low- and moderate-income families in Montana…”