ARCHIVES OF THE MAYOR'S WEEKLY COLUMN Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani

Sending Our Children Back-to-School Healthy

On the first day of the new school year, Schools Chancellor Harold Levy and I visited P.S. 212 in Jackson Heights, Queens -- a newly-built school -- to kick-off the Back-to-School Healthy campaign, a major City outreach effort at all 757 public elementary schools to provide uninsured New York City children with health care.

This promises to be an important year in the history of the City’s public schools because we are addressing some of the long-standing problems that have afflicted our schools and our children. Not least of these is the lack of health insurance among too many young New Yorkers.

In fact, approximately 325,000 New York City children who are eligible for existing public health insurance programs are not covered. In response to this challenge, we have instituted Health*STAT, the most comprehensive health care initiative in our City’s history.

Health*STAT is a citywide campaign to ensure that everyone who is eligible for public health insurance programs gets enrolled. More than 20 City agencies have been mobilized to educate and, in some cases, enroll eligible people.

One of the major components of Health*STAT is school-based outreach, so that parents can enroll their children in existing health care programs. It’s important for children to see a doctor even when they are not sick. Youngsters who see a doctor regularly are more likely to get their immunizations on time and get the other care they need to grow up healthy, including hearing and eye exams. In contrast, children without access to regular health care are 25% more likely to miss school.

A major outreach effort to inform parents about children’s health insurance took place during the first two days of school. More than 1,500 staff and volunteers from City agencies and community-based organizations were stationed at every public elementary school in the city to answer questions and assist parents in enrolling their children in health plans.

In addition, in partnership with the Children’s Defense Fund of New York, Back-to-School kits were distributed to non-profit groups across the city, offering strategies that they can use to help children become enrolled in public health insurance programs.

We’re using every agency of City government to get our message out. The Department of Health mailed to parents of new students 140,000 back-to-school packets that include health insurance information; and the New York City Housing Authority is including a question on children’s health insurance in its after-school program application.

And over the next several months, the Human Resources Administration will bring the Health*STAT enrollment van to community events across the city, with the ability to enroll children and their parents in health care programs right then and there.

In New York City, there are hundreds of thousands of adults who also are eligible for health insurance but are not covered. The City is doing everything that we can to make sure that every single person is covered, and we’re starting with the children, who need the protection most.

It’s important to mention that children are eligible for health insurance regardless of their immigration status. Even undocumented children are eligible. This is a very vulnerable group that it is particularly important to enroll.

Health insurance is a vitally important tool to help our children get the health care they need. For more information or to find out how to get your children enrolled, call 1-800-698-4543. There’s no reason why children should remain uninsured when quality care is available.