There are many people who are unable to afford to purchase health insurance coverage. Sadly, this often means that their children are also without coverage. Some state programs are designed to help with this problem. In California, there is a program called Healthy Families that might help you.
Healthy Families is a low cost insurance coverage program for children and teens. It provides health, dental, and vision coverage for children who do not have insurance coverage and who do not qualify for free Medi-Cal. This is a public, or government run, form of health insurance.
There are several eligibility requirements that must be met in order for children to receive insurance coverage through the Healthy Families program. It is a bit confusing, at first, to sort out what the actual qualifications are because the wording on the California website under the heading “Who can join?” and the qualifications listed under the FAQ are slightly different.
Children may be eligible if they are under the age of 19. This means that if your child is 18, and has not yet reached his 19th birthday, he could qualify for Healthy Families. This program is only available to children who are currently living in the state of California. Children must meet citizenship and immigrations rules in order to qualify.
Healthy Families is only offered to California children who are not eligible for, or who are not currently enrolled in, no-cost Medi-Cal. In other words, your child cannot receive assistance from both the Healthy Families program and the Medi-Cal program at the same time. Children may be eligible if they live in a family that has gone without employer-sponsored health insurance for the past three months.
There is another program called AIM, which stands for Access for Infants and Mothers. AIM is a public, or government run, form of health insurance for pregnant women who are low-income. A child that is born to a mother who is in the AIM program may qualify for Healthy Families. To qualify, the mother must not be enrolled in the no-cost full scope Medi-Cal program or covered by employer-sponsored health insurance.
There are income requirements that must also be met in order for a child to be covered by Healthy Families. The income guidelines change every year in April. You must re-apply for Healthy Families each year in order to receive it. I would recommend checking over the income guidelines before you re-apply, just in case they have changed in a way that prevents your child from qualifying for the program.
Members of the program will be expected to pay a monthly premium, and a co-payment when they visit a doctor or receive other services. Some services will be provided for free.
Image be SanShoot on Flickr