CHIP Update: Enroll DFW

Members and supporters of the Tarrant County CHIP Coalition,

Three things this week — all exciting:

1. Enroll DFW. We\’re ready! In August, we\’ll have application assistance for children\’s Medicaid and CHIP nearly every day somewhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This will be DFW\’s largest campaign to help all eligible children enroll in Medicaid or CHIP, a community-wide effort throughout August. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children in the Metroplex are uninsured and would quality for CHIP or Medicaid, but are not enrolled. As you know, Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured children. The campaign includes:
• More than 50 opportunities for families to receive application assistance in Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties throughout August. The venues will be at back-to-school fairs, churches, community centers, libraries and other venues.
• Community presentations
• Grassroots marketing
• Online and media messages by Radio One, 94.5 KSOUL and 97.9 The Beat
• Enroll-a-thon on Univision on Aug. 25

As children head back to school, they need immunizations and basic healthcare coverage to stay well throughout the year. Many area families continue to struggle with loss of jobs and loss of insurance at work. DFW has an unemployment rate more than of 8%. Even for those with jobs, health insurance is often unaffordable, or dependents are not covered. Enroll DFW is organized and led by the Tarrant County and Dallas CHIP Coalitions. Our goal for August is to connect 10,000 uninsured, eligible children in DFW to insurance coverage. For more information, including a list of sites where application assistance will be available, go to: www.enrolldfw.com. To volunteer with marketing or outreach, contact tarrantcountychip@yahoo.com.

2. We\’re making progress on reducing the numbers of uninsured children in Tarrant County.
In July, 2,496 more Tarant County children were covered by children\’s Medicaid and CHIP compared with June 2010. This is a 1.8% increase over June, and a 17.2% increase over July 2009.

While enrollment has been increasingly throughout the state because of the economy, our numbers have been increasingly slightly faster. I believe this speaks to all of YOUR efforts in raising awareness and providing application assistance. Statewide totals in July were up 1.2% in July, 13.9% over the previous year.
Of all of new children covered under CHIP and Medicaid in Texas in July, nearly 10% were from Tarrant County.

3. Welcome Dr. Robert Rogers, who is joining me as co-chair of the Tarrant County CHIP Coalition. Dr. Rogers is a pediatric allergist in Tarrant County, and has been very active in our coalition. Also, please join me in thanking Walter Taylor, outreach supervisor of Your Texas Benefits, for his leadership with the coalition. Walter will continue to be involved in our efforts, but has asked to step aside as co-chair because of multiple personal and professional responsibilities he is balancing. A bit of history — Walter and I decided to start a coalition for Tarrant County in mid-2008, and officially started it with an organizing meeting in November 2008. We were strangers before finding a common passion for covering children. Meeting Walter and becoming involved in this work has been life-changing for me. If you want to hear the expanded version of this story, I wrote it on the blog: www.tarrantcountychip.com.

Quote of the week: \”Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present\”. – Albert Camus

See ya, Sandy
Follow me on twitter: besandylutz