Year of Service To Our Communities
The year 2009 was an economic downturn for many families here in Lake County. In fact, many families experienced lay-offs, asked to take days off without pay, or had no access to health coverage for various reasons. The Covering Kids & Families of Lake County, along with its partners, were dedicated to addressing the health care needs of children, pregnant mothers, and adults into the state’s health coverage plans. In an effort to offer some assistance and or relief to our residents, our coalition and its partners were able to assist 965 children and pregnant mothers into Hoosier Healthwise and 348 adults into the Healthy Indiana Plan.
Our Faith Health Initiative / Advisory Committee remained proactive in educating our churches as well as communities in order to identify eligible families for both health coverage programs, as well as preventative measures families can take to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Our greatest impact was during the Back to School Health & Fun Fair where more than 2200 families attended and received services such as immunizations, physicals, dental, on-site enrollment, along with other health screenings and information booths from community partners.
Presumptive eligibility was implemented by the state of Indiana in July of 2009. Our coalition was able to educate hospitals, local physician offices, clinics, and enrollment centers that offered pregnancy services on the benefits of providing this service. In an effort to create community awareness, our coalition held it’s first of many “Celebrating Motherhood” events which targeted pregnant mothers. More than 40 mothers attended the event and encouraged to enroll into health coverage, maintain visits with their physician, and educated on various topics. On-site enrollment was available and all managed care organizations were present to answer questions.
Our efforts would not be possible without the generous support and donations of the following sponsors: MDWISE, Managed Health Services, and the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ Ministry Fund. In addition, we would like to thank our lead organization the “Lake County Minority Health Coalition” and “Health Vision Midwest” for their support and recognizing the importance of enrolling the uninsured in Lake County.