All Kids Covered Initiative

Funder

David and Lucile Packard Foundation and The Colorado Health Foundation

Stakeholders

The All Kids Covered Initiative is being overseen by the All Kids Covered Leadership Team, which is comprised of representatives from the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved, The Colorado Children’s Campaign, Covering Kids and Families, and Metro Organizations for People. The larger initiative also includes representatives of human services, health care policy and financing, primary health care providers, physical health care providers and advocates, mental health care providers and advocates, members of the legislature, the Governor’s Office, and the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.

Description

All Kids Covered strives - especially during tough economic times - to reduce the number of uninsured children in Colorado by acting as a non-partisan coalition, advocating for sound policy, and building public will.

The AKC Intitiative started in 2006 when Colorado State Senator Bob Hagedorn approached the Colorado Coalition for the Mesdically Underserved to convene a group of stakeholders to work with policymakers and key leadership organizations, service providers and other stakeholders to make Colorado’s public health insurance programs work better for kids and families. Since that time, over forty organizations representing different perspectives on children's health care have joined as initiative members.

In 2007, the 2010 All Kids Covered Initiative was awarded a $50,000 grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to work on narrative communications for covering kids. In 2008, the Initiative was awarded a $750,000 three-year grant by both the Packard Foundation and the Colorado Health Foundation to work towards the goal of covering all kids in Colorado with health care.

Key strategies and activities in 2009 are: 1) Designing a seamless system of public insurance for children through eligibility modernization, coordination of Medicaid and CHP+ programs, presumptive eligibility, CHP+ expansion, stair-step, and enrollment/retention activities; and 2) Reducing “red tape” so it is easier for kids to get and keep coverage through administrative verification, passive renewal, development of outcome measures and revised Medicaid/CHP+ joint application activities; and supporting partner efforts to increase reimbursement rates and fill in gaps in dental care and coverage for kids and pregnant women.

Besides monitoring, advising, researching, and advocating for regulatory and practice changes to the state run Medicaid and CHP+ programs, in the past several years, AKC has advocated for the following successful legislation:

House Bill 1020 - Medical Program Re-enrollment, which establishes a process for telephone and online re-enrollment into Medicaid and CHP+, and ensures that eligible children continue to receive quality care.
House Bill 1293 - Health Coverage For Kids, which ensures uninterrupted access to services for kids by providing 12 months of continuous eligibility for children enrolled in Medicaid, and provides more families with access to public health coverage by increasing eligibility for children in CHP+ from 205% to 250% of the Federal Poverty Level and increasing eligibility for parents in Medicaid from 60% to 100% of the Federal Poverty Level.
House Bill 1353 - Coverage for Moms and Kids, which provides benefits under Medicaid and CHP+ to pregnant women and children who are legal immigrants, and waives the 5-year waiting period for such services.
Senate Bill 228 – Flexibility of State Revenues (eliminate 6%), which repeals an outdated state budget formula known as Arveschoug-Bird, and more than doubles the state's reserve requirement as a cushion against future economic downturns.
Senate Bill 160 - Health Coverage Expansion for Children, which expands health insurance coverage for uninsured children through the Child Health Plan Plus program (CHP+) by increasing eligibility from 205% to 225% of the Federal Poverty Level.
Senate Bill 161 -Child Enrollment for Health Programs, which reduces barriers to enrollment in Medicaid and CHP+ by eliminating the requirements for families to submit paycheck stubs; instead allows the State to verify a family’s income using data that is already available, and allows for easy re-enrollment of children at the end of their eligibility period, thus avoiding interruption in coverage.
Senate Bill 130 - Medical Home for Colorado Children, which declares that a “medical home” is important for children. A medical home is a concept, rather than physical location that ensures a child has coordinated and comprehensive access to medical care, mental health care and oral health care, and directs the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) to implement standards and systems to increase the number of children in Medicaid and CHP+ programs with a medical home.
Senate Bill 211 - Continuity of Care for Colorado Kids, which establishes presumptive eligibility for children applying for Medicaid or CHP+ (allows coverage of children while they are completing the application), requires an annual report on quality, access, and health outcomes, allows for continuous enrollment for CHP+ kids moving to Medicaid, and decreases barriers for enrollment in public programs by clarifying the identity documentation required for pregnant women and 18-19 year olds applying for CHP+.

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