| Copyright: | U.S. Newswire Corp. | | Source: | U.S. Newswire | | Wordcount: | 601 |
To: HEALTH EDITORS
Contact: Doug Halladay of Michigan Cover the Uninsured Network, +1-313-874-1667, +1-313-461-5987 (cell)
DETROIT, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan Cover the Uninsured Network has been awarded a grant to launch a marketing program aimed at enrolling children into state-sponsored health insurance programs.
The one year, $50,000 grant was made by The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan to the Michigan Cover the Uninsured Network, a coalition of more than 1000 agencies and organizations to ensure affordable healthcare coverage for all state citizens.
The grant will provide funding for a marketing campaign and outreach initiative to reach uninsured children and families and have them enrolled in state-sponsored health insurance programs such as MIChild and Healthy Kids.
There are an estimated 160,000 uninsured children in Michigan and as many as 80,000 live in southeast Michigan. In the city of Detroit, half of the population is either uninsured or receives Medicaid, and recent census reports indicate that the numbers are growing.
The initiative is a collaborative effort among several major stakeholder groups in southeastern Michigan, including health care systems, insurance providers, the Detroit Regional Chamber, and the United Way for Southeastern Michigan's 2-1-1 Call Center.
"Funding support from the Community Foundation provides us with the seed dollars to develop a unique collaboration with the United Way 2-1-1 Call Center in southeastern Michigan that we expect will reach hundreds of uninsured children and families," said Doug Halladay, Director of the Michigan Cover the Uninsured Network. "By utilizing the United Way 2-1-1 Call Center, families will be connected to operators who will be trained to screen callers for health insurance. Once screened for eligibility, the caller will be connected to personnel that can enroll them over the phone or make an appropriate healthcare services referral."
The program is expected to be fully launched by the summer of 2008. "Taking on a major issue such as access to healthcare is right up our alley," said Doug Plant, Vice President of Community Services for United Way for Southeastern Michigan. "2-1-1 is providing citizens with a single point of entry for easy access to health and human services information. This collaboration with our health providers and other community groups allows us to more fully address a major basic need in our communities, the lack of health insurance," he said.
Serving as fiduciary of the grant is Henry Ford Health System, a strategic partner of the MCTUN 2008 initiative.
For further information about the Michigan Cover the Uninsured Network and the 2008 Cover the Uninsured initiative, please contact Doug Halladay or Naomi Ruth at 313-874-1677 or by email at nruth1@hfhs.org.
The Michigan Cover the Uninsured Network is an effort to expand access to affordable, quality health care and health insurance for uninsured, under-
insured and underserved individuals and communities and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of the people of Michigan.
The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, founded in 1984, is a permanent community endowment built by gifts from thousands of individuals and organizations committed to the future of southeast Michigan. The Foundation works to improve the quality of life in southeast Michigan by supporting a wide variety of activities benefiting education, arts and culture, health, human services, community development and civic affairs.
Governed by a board of 50 community leaders, the Foundation makes grants to outstanding charitable projects in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, St. Clair, Livingston and Washtenaw counties. The Foundation has assets of $609 million and, since its inception, has distributed more than $276 million in more than 28,000 grants to nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit http://www.cfsem.org. SOURCE Michigan Cover the Uninsured Network
-0-
This is a news service of Thomson Business Intelligence Service ©2006. This content is for your personal use only, subject to Terms and Conditions. No redistribution allowed.
|
