Nevada Check-Up needs marketing

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 11:25 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A senior assemblywoman complained Thursday that the state has not done enough to market the program that provides low-cost insurance for children of working poor families.

Assemblywoman Jan Evans, D-Sparks, told state health officials, "We're not even making a dent" in the number of people eligible for Nevada Check-Up, which was started last year. "We have a paper program."

Evans' remarks came during review by the legislative budget committees of the proposed spending programs of the state Division of Health Care Financing and Policy, which oversees the insurance program.

Janice Wright, who was named acting division manager on Tuesday, testified that 4,005 families have signed up for the program and that a total of 9,000 have applied. About 800 applications are in transition, she said.

It was initially estimated that there may be 40,000 children eligible but that has been lowered to 25,000. The federal government pays two-thirds of the cost of Nevada Check-Up and the state picks up the rest.

Evans, who is speaker pro-tem in the Assembly and the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, said the division must make people understand this is a health, not a welfare program. Families, based on their income, pay a quarterly premium of $10 to $50 to qualify their children for coverage.

Other states have developed bureaucratic hurdles and have sold it as a welfare program in order to keep enrollment low, she said.

Wright said one of the five-member staff is a marketing coordinator and there have been successes. For instance, she said, 950 of the 4005 enrolled are Hispanics, where there's been a concentrated effort to sell the program.

"I'm not sure we've done a bad job in other areas," said Wright, who was in only the second day of her new job.

Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, said he has long been a critic of the program. He says children of working poor families should be entered into Medicaid, instead of starting a new program. He wondered if it might be too late this upcoming legislative session to scrap Nevada Check-Up in favor of Medicaid.

Wright said that while it's not too late, people don't like to fill out long forms to enter government programs. For Check-Up, there's a two-page application compared to 16 pages for Medicaid.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has recommended putting $28 million in federal and state funds into the program for the next two years. That amount would handle 10,000 children. Guinn's chief of staff, Peter Ernaut, says, however, that no one will be turned away if a higher enrollment is reached.