Wednesday, 16 March 2005 This information supplements handouts. 1. Welcome and Introductions Beth Giesting, executive director of the Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, opened the meeting at 10:00 AM and welcomed the sixteen attendees. She also introduced our guest speaker, Donna Cohen Ross, from The Center On Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) in Washington, D.C. 2. Donna Cohen Ross: “Making Tax Time Pay for Working Families” Click here for more information: National Tax Credit Outreach Campaign Website. Donna explained the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is an effective anti-poverty tool for families. She discussed how the tax credit works, who is eligible, and how to claim it. CBPP provides outreach materials, technical assistance, and training and they can be reached at 202-408-1080 or eickit@cbpp.org. Donna noted that partner organizations helped translate an EITC and Child Tax Credit brochure for CBPP’s most requested languages. You can contact them if other languages are needed for distribution. Participants highlighted a state EITC on the legislature’s agenda. A single parent with one child must earn at least $3,6000 per month to avoid dependence on special programs. A state EITC would help families save money because they are credits and not counted as income. In turn, this will help people build assets and become independent. The state EITC will cost approximately $20 million annually and be available to low-income people. It was noted that one EITC benefit is stopping expensive payday loans which can contribute financially squeezing families. Also, Aloha United Way, 3Point Consulting, and Hawaii Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development are working together to promote economic ventures that help low-income families build wealth and assets, including individual development accounts (IDA). 3. Hawaii Covering Kids Updates a. Med-QUEST Enrollment 2004 was an exceptional year to help more children and youth enroll in QUEST and Medicaid and retain their benefits! In January 2004, the Children and Pregnant Women Application was launched and in June a new passive renewal process for cases with children started. A new Outreach and Assistance project funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Med-QUEST that placed additional outreach workers in various communities to help families with applications and renewals complemented the simplification efforts. The result of these initiatives is over 9,000 more children and youth ages 0 to 19 years old enrolled and retained in QUEST and Medicaid in 2004. b. Pharmacy Outreach We completed our pharmacy outreach initiative and welcomed partners at 150 locations on six islands. They are distributing 123,000 half-page flyers (bag stuffers) and posting information on their community boards. c. Multilingual Flyers Our flyer is now available in fourteen languages: Chinese, Chuukese, English, Hawaiian, Ilocano, Japanese, Korean, Marshallese, Pohnpeian, Samoan, Tagalog, Tongan, Vietnamese, and Visayan. Copies can be downloaded at Flyers and Media Outreach Campaigns. More translations will be posted when available. c. Community Training Workshops We are partnering with Med-QUEST to conduct ninety-minute sessions titled “Enrolling Children and Youth in QUEST and Medicaid” so community organizations can help families complete Med-QUEST's applications and eliminate enrollment barriers. Since November 2003, we have sponsored 22 workshops for 210 participants from 75 organizations on five islands. A flyer can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking here: Community Training Workshops.