Travis County Commssioners Court
February 10, 2004
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item 2
2. Approve proclamation declaring February 7 through 14, 2004 as "insure-a-kid week" in Travis County. We have several representatives here to receive this. Carolyn flores [indiscernible], ellen [indiscernible] somebody is missing.
>> yeah. [inaudible - no mic]
>> alma and cynthia.
>> alma and cynthia is not with us.
>> okay. We will listen to the four of y'all. How is that? We do have a proclamation. And it reads: whereas every child deserves quality health care, including regular checkups and immunizations, to promote good health and ensure a healthy future, whereas despite changes, low cost quality health insurance is still available for thousands of uninsured children, Texas families, through the children's health insurance program, chip. Usually referred to. And children's medicaid. Whereas cuts to chip have not diminished the need for children's health insurance or its positive impact on lives of children and their parents in our community. Whereas insure a kid will continue to work to restore services cut from the program and to provide Travis County families with the assistance in receiving, utilizing and renewing low-cost children's health insurance and now is the time for the thousands of Texas families that are still uninsured to enroll and maintain their children's health insurance. Now therefore be it resolved that we the Travis County Commissioners court do hereby proclaim the week of February 7th through 14, that's this week, 2004, as insure a kid week 2004 in Travis County. And call upon all citizens and residents to learn about the importance of preventive health care for children and adults and to call 324-chip or 324-2447, same number, to receive more information about chip and children's medicaid. And I move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> thank you, so much. We are really appreciative of the support you have given insure a kid over the years. We do want to remind families that low cost children's health insurance is still available. Our hotline is 324-2447 for families to call to get more information to get help filling out the application or just to get questions answered.
>> and you are carolyn swarz.
>> that's right.
>> okay, any other comments? This has been one of those programs that made a whole lot of difference in our community in place now what, about five years?
>> exactly, we are in our fifth year, yes.
>> and we did take some cuts at the state level, which resulted in loss of federal funds. But we have to keep on fighting the good fight here locally. And that's what you all are having us to do.
>> that's right. We also want to tell families that already have their kids on chip the importance of using the engineer and then renewing it -- using the program and then renewing it. We don't want them to fall off the program.
>> those checkups and immunizations are very important, especially at a young age.
>> repeat that number again.
>> it's 324-2447 or if it's easier to check 324-chip.
>> chips, okay. Thank you.
>> chip.
>> let me ask you. Is this a program that is available top any family for children in the state of Texas?
>> chip and children's medicaid are available for children who are u.s. Citizens or legal permanent residents. However, if there are families who are watching this or hearing this that are in other swayings they can call us and we have other resources we may be able to refer them to.
>> but this would be a freeman that would be available to anyone in the state of Texas, given that they -- just the state of Texas or anyone?
>> well, there are chip programs in every state in the united states. But each state runs their program differently. So our Texas chip program is for Texas residents.
>> so whenever you hear -- because you always hear these alarming statistics about how many children are not insured in the state of Texas, and one of the first things that, you know, a number of people want to do is jump in the middle of the legislature over not funding, not having enough funding for children's insurance. Is this something that most people ought to be able to afford? Is this a -- is this a program that if you were conscientious about wanting insurance for your children in your opinion is this a program that most people ought to be able to have their children insured with us.
>> well, there are a lot of different requirements. First and foremost that the families be living at 200% of poverty or below, so if the family falls in that category, then these programs are accessible to those families. It's very affordable. The chip program costs $25 a month or less for all the kids in the family. So that's really a small cost for the big benefits that -- that families get with, you know, medical coverage and we have gotten some of the mental health benefits restored in the last few months. So --
>> what's the cost without the children's health insurance?
>> it's much, much more than that. You could go to the hospital -- I mean, if you had an emergency it could cost thousands of dollars to go to the emergency room without health insurance. When you have chip or children's medicaid it's either free if you are on medicaid or with chip there's a small co-payment for having an emergency room visit. It's getting the preventive care and using health insurance appropriately is a much more cost saving way to get health care taken care of.
>> how do people find -- how would you really know about this? If you live understand a small town -- lived in a small town, really said, you know, I just can't afford insurance, how is it that you really know -- hopefully somebody would be able to direct you.
>> we are very fortunate here in Travis County that we do have the insure a kid program. Two of our outreach staff are here with us today, they are out doing events in schools and in the community. In fact on Saturday we will be at fiesta super matter from 10:00 to 2:00 helping families sign up for the insurance programs. In smaller communities, in other parts of the state, i'll be honest with you, there were some cuts at the state level about the outreach dollars and so there's much -- much fewer resources in other parts of the state right now. For this type of getting the word out to families. The michael and susan dell foundation have been very generous in our county as well as they now fund grants in communities in I think it's 14 other parts of the state and 39 school districts across the state of Texas, so there's a little more outreach going on there.
>> okay. So the outreach dollars is really what has impacted the ability to get the word that there is a program like this versus if you were -- if you live in cotulla, Texas and you just didn't know about a program like this, your obvious first choice of getting the word out would be through the schools. I mean, now I guess if -- if you had a three-year-old and you didn't have somebody in school, you would -- you wouldn't know that your 3-year-old could get this kind of insurance. Tough have those testiculars to ensure that people know about it. I understand because that is a very confusing statistic, one of those things that we all hear and not just this community, but everywhere. Where you have all of these astronomical amounts of folks -- we estimate more than a million uninsured children in Texas.
>> if you are uninsured in this community, and you do not have a financial ability to pay your medical expenses, chances are the city of Austin or Travis County will pick up the tab whether you go to one of our clinics or the emergency room at brackenridge. In the end we pay substantially more for each treatment or each visit than we would if children's health insurance had been in place for children.
>> that's right. Again, just to encourage even adults because we do have resources for adults to call us at 324-2447, he want to try to get everyone hooked up with some kind of payment source for your health care. My guess is that same thing happens throughout all of the communities in Texas. They don't get access to the information going this route. They wind up going to the emergency rooms, which is much, much more expensive. If they are indigent the county and cities pick it up. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> anything further? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you all very much, appreciate the good work. You get to take this beautiful proclamation with you. Make sure the others know what fun they missed.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 6:44 PM