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REMARKS BY: DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Covering Kids Public Education Campaign Launch DATE: August 9, 2000
Nearly eight years ago, the Clinton Gore Administration made a promise to our most valuable and vulnerable citizens. We promised to give our children a healthy foundation on which to build their dreams.
Since day one, we fought to keep that promise and now childhood immunization rates are at an all time high; infant mortality rates are at an all time low; and rates of child poverty have steadily decreased while rates of prenatal care have been steadily increasing.
We've worked to get tobacco out of our children's lives; we've more than doubled funding for Head Start; and teen birth rates have declined to their lowest rate in the 60 years that data on teen births have been recorded.
I'm also pleased to announce that a report released by my department today confirms that child abuse and neglect has declined in recent years while adoption is on the rise.
We've come a long way in keeping our promise to our nation's children. But, to paraphrase the poet, we know that we still have miles to go - and that's why we stepped up our efforts to enroll eligible children in Medicaid and why we inaugurated the State Children's Health Insurance Program. As of now, we've already enrolled two million young people in SCHIP. That's greater than the combined population of Montana, Vermont and North Dakota.
SCHIP has been a success story because it's based on partnerships - partnerships between federal and state governments and partnerships between the public and private sectors.
Since the beginning of SCHIP, HHS, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and many public and private organizations have been working together to insure children across the country.
As part of the "Covering Kids" initiative, you've chalked-up wins in every corner of our nation -- from enlisting Naomi Judd as the spokesperson for KCHIP in Kentucky to creating pilot programs in rural Pennsylvania to develop and test innovative strategies for reaching and enrolling eligible children.
Of course, none of your efforts would have been possible without the continued support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
That's why I'm pleased to join Covering Kids and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation today as they kick off their three-year multi-million dollar national campaign to connect America's children to health care coverage.
I've no doubt that this campaign will help intensify efforts to aid uninsured children. However, if we want to give every child a healthy foundation for her dreams, we all need to meet the three challenges that remain as barriers to enrolling every eligible child - challenges that government cannot meet alone -- challenges that require public and private organizations working together.
First, the research Dr. Schroeder just announced underscores that awareness is our greatest challenge. At HHS we've launched a nationwide "Insure Kids Now" outreach campaign that includes a web site and a national toll free number. To date, that number -1-877-KIDS-NOW -- has received nearly 300,000 calls; 300,000 requests for information, for help.for answers. We've also formed a Federal Interagency Task Force on Children's Health Insurance Outreach that's implemented over 150 innovative and successful activities. For example, this task force prepared an outreach training kit for use by workers from all federal departments that participate in the Insure Kids Now campaign. In addition, the Department of Agriculture widely distributed SCHIP information to WIC participants in various states.
I also know many states have found other innovative ways to spread the word about Medicaid and SCHIP. Utah placed a full-time outreach worker in its Primary Children's Hospital to target and enroll eligible children who visit the emergency room and clinics. Georgia hired people to distribute Medicaid flyers in pizza boxes, and on the weekend before public schools opened, outreach workers stationed in K-Mart stores completed applications for families to enroll in PeachCare.
But, we must do more to educate low-income families -- and their employers -- about Medicaid availability for children outside the welfare system. And we must find new ways of reaching SCHIP and Medicaid eligible children.
Of course if we really want to maximize our outreach efforts we must simultaneously address the challenge of simplification. Fortunately, many states have already started efforts to make the application and enrollment process for both programs as user-friendly as possible.
But as we simplify the process, we also need to improve coordination. That's our third challenge. Sharing information should become common practice because it makes common sense. That's why I'm pleased that the President recently signed into law the rule allowing states to use school lunch data to identify and enroll eligible children into Medicaid and SCHIP. I know states will take advantage of this new flexibility to help our children.
Our children will be the architects of society in this new millennium. The future is very much in their hands. But right now, their future is very much in our hands.
That's why we must work together to meet all of our three challenges...and endow each child with a healthy foundation that will open the door to a world of opportunity, beauty and possibility. Because healthy children -- today -- means a healthier...more productive...more prosperous nation, tomorrow.
Thank you.