Nov 26
Keeping Uninsured Kids Healthy in Alabama
In the late ’80s Al Rohling, Alabama’s director of the state housing authority, watched many parents living in the housing he controlled quitting their jobs when their kids got sick, thereby lowering their incomes to qualify for government medical help.
Rohling came to the conclusion that if a child’s illness could drive a family into poverty, perhaps medical insurance would contribute to the restoration of family financial help as well. “Health care for children really is a bridge to get out of poverty,” says Rohling today.
Rohling quit his job in 1988 to help set up the Child Caring Foundation, which provides free health insurance for children through the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama health care provider. The foundation is just one example of a charity that bridges the gap between Medicaid – subsidized insurance – for the poorest and private health insurance paid for either privately for those who can afford it, or by an employer.
Children with health insurance are usually taken to the doctor at the first sign of illness, while parents of uninsured kids often wait because they are conscious of the cost.
Then the child’s illness can worsen and the parent is forced to miss work to nurse the child back to health.
In Alabama, there were 230,000 uninsured children in 1988, and that has fallen to around 70,000 due to a combination of the Child Caring Foundation and state programs. Some 90 percent of the children on the program move into private health insurance within about 30 months. To recruit families, Rohling tours the state presenting health screenings at schools with the help of volunteers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing and elsewhere.
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November 28th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
The world needs more people like Rohling. His efforts obviously lead to a huge upswing in Alabama children with health insurance… and a generation of Southern youth will owe this man a debt of gratitude. Thanks for the word on such a noble effort.
Jerry
http://www.leads4insurance.com