1.Pregnant Immigrants Eligible for Med-QUEST Programs Effective 1 July 2004, a pregnant legal immigrant who has been in the United States less than five years is eligible for free public health insurance. The woman must be a Hawaii resident with a household income less than 185% FPL (see the chart at Income Guidelines). This fully state-funded program is great news for immigrant families! 2. Evaluation of The San Mateo Children's Health Initiative: First Annual Report In early 2003, San Mateo County in California launched the Children's Health Initiative (CHI), a program to ensure that all children living in the county have access to comprehensive health insurance. Completed by Embry Howell, Dana Hughes, Holly Stockdale, and Martha Kovac, this first annual evaluation report shows that in its early months the CHI achieved rapid enrollment growth in its new insurance product, "Healthy Kids." This successful outreach and enrollment is a product of intensive and sustained collaboration among the CHI partners. Future evaluation reports will document the impact of the program on access to care and program costs. For more information go to: Evaluation of the San Mateo County Children's Health Initiative. 3. Report Analyzes The Affect of Health Insurance on Low-Income Families A report published by The Kaiser Family Foundation explores tradeoffs that low-income families make in their everyday lives and implications for their health insurance. Based on in-depth interviews among twelve families across the nation, the report finds low-income families spend seven out of every ten dollars on basic living expenses, including housing, transportation, and food. The remainder is split across many different categories with health care spending amounting to seven percent of income. Almost none of the families interviewed for the report were offered employer-sponsored health insurance. If they were offered employer-sponsored health insurance, it often had high deductibles and/or was too expensive for them to purchase. According to the report, typically the children had Medicaid or CHIP, but the parents were uninsured. The report found that income eligibility for parents was usually much lower than for children and even some states that had expanded health insurance programs for working parents were scaling back due to budget shortfalls. Many reported they wanted public health assistance through Medicaid or CHIP but did not want cash assistance. In conclusion, the report found that while Medicaid and CHIP provided much needed protection for children and youth and assured them checkups and medical care when they got sick, not all children were covered. In at least one case, younger children were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP while older children in the same family were uninsured. These gaps reflect income eligibility limits that preclude the programs from reaching all low-income children and youth. Click here for a PDF copy: Challenges and Tradeoffs in Low -Income Family Budgets: Implications for Health Coverage. 4. Understanding Marshallese Patients-Cooperating Across Cultures The University of Hawaii Center for Pacific Islands Studies and Small Island Networks presents a workshop on "Understanding Marshallese Patients-Cooperating Across Cultures" from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm at Kapiolani Community College, 4304 Diamond Head Road, Ohia 118, Honolulu. It will focus on selective relevant background information about the Marshallese people's lives: nation, history, society, and cultural values and attitudes toward health care. It will also offer practical communication strategies and suggestions for Hawaii's health care providers. The cost is $20 which includes workshop materials and continental breakfast. The KCC cafeteria and Subway will be open for lunch. Parking is free. Registration deadline is 19 July 2004. For more information, call the Center at 956-7700.