Posted on: Friday, August 23, 2002

Campaign alerts teens to medical insurance

By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer

State officials launched a campaign yesterday to get free medical insurance for up to14,000 teenagers who may not be aware they are eligible for such services.

Flyers were sent out to the 42 public high schools statewide informing youths in moderate to low-income families that if they do not have health insurance, they may be able to qualify for state and federal insurance programs such as QUEST or Medicaid, said Barbara Luksch, project director of Hawai'i Covering Kids, a national project that connects uninsured children to low-cost or free health insurance.

This is the third "back-to-school" campaign for Hawai'i Covering Kids since it started in 1999.

The health insurance campaign is especially important because it enables teens and families to treat a minor health problem before it becomes worse, said Louise Iwaishi, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics-Hawai'i Chapter and medical director of the Kapi'olani Medical Center's Pediatric Clinic.

"When they start to feel sick they take two aspirins when they should see a doctor," Iwaishi said. "Without insurance, they'll wait until the problem is really bad. The campaign helps them gain access to health care, because if you don't have a health (insurance) card, you probably can't get into a physician's door."

In Hawai'i, about 22,000 children up to age 19 are uninsured, and 14,000 of them are potentially eligible for QUEST or Medicaid, Luksch said. Qualifications such as family size, annual household income and state residency are considered. Once covered, the insurance programs would provide regular check-ups, emergency care, immunization, counseling, prescription medicines and dental care, Luksch said.

"We've been doing outreach enrollment, but we first targeted younger children," Luksch said. "When we took a look at who would be our next target group, we realized that we could reach out to teenagers because a lot of agencies work with younger children and not older ones, and nationwide, more teens are uninsured than younger children."

Nationally, about 75 percent of children 5 years old and younger participate in public health insurance programs compared to 58.3 percent of teens 13 to 17 who are covered, Luksch said.

Iwaishi said the numbers of uninsured teens often are high because it's a transitional time in which parents don't think about their child's health as much as they did when the child was a baby.

"In the first five years of life, there are so many immunizations, there are more trips to the doctor and so many people are actually thinking about the child's health," Iwaishi said. "When the child hits middle school or high school, it's a different story. They don't get those yearly check-ups, and they don't visit the doctor unless they are really sick."

Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto said the Department of Education has teamed up with the agency to help spread the information to public school students and their families.

Karen Ginoza, president of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, said encouraging families to become insured will reduce the hassles that arise when uninsured students go on field trips.

"To make sure they're covered they had to bring $4," Ginoza said. "Now that we received word about this opportunity... we're determined to get the word out. Let's get our kids covered."

Reach Shayna Coleon at scoleon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8004.