By Staff
from staff reports
More Alabama children have health insurance coverage than the national average as ALL Kids celebrates 10-year milestone of covering Alabama's kids.
More than 9 million American children are living without health insurance - more than the total number of first and second graders in U.S. public schools.
However, in Alabama, the number of children with health care coverage has grown significantly in the past decade since the inception of ALL Kids, Alabama's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Ten years ago, Congress enacted the State Children's Heath Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide coverage for children living in families earning too much for Medicaid, but not earning enough to afford private insurance. Alabama was the first state in the nation to have an approved SCHIP plan.
ALL Kids has provided comprehensive healthcare coverage to nearly 186,000 children, making a profound contribution toward reducing the number of uninsured children in the state.
While the national child uninsured rate is currently 11.5 percent; Alabama‘s rate has continually declined from 15 percent prior to ALL Kids and is now 7.2 percent, well under the national average.
ALL Kids is a low-cost, comprehensive healthcare coverage program for children under age 19. Benefits include well child check-ups and immunizations, sick child doctor visits, prescriptions, vision and dental care, hospitalization, mental health and substance abuse services, and many other services.
The ALL Kids program, administered by the Alabama Department of Public Health, hosted a special &#8220birthday” celebration April 24 to mark a decade of providing healthcare coverage to children so that Alabama's kids may enjoy years of healthy, happy birthdays.
For more information, call ALL Kids, toll-free, 1-888-373-KIDS (5437). Assistance is provided in English and Spanish. Information is also available from the ALL Kids Web site at www.adph.org/allkids. County Health Departments also have information and applications available to the public.