Cuyahoga brings health advocate to forum June 27

Cleveland: On Wednesday, June 27, 2007, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) campus at Thwing Center at 10900 Euclid Avenue, the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) and the Employment & Family Services (EFS) hosts Donna Cohen Ross, Outreach Director at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 

The Center is a Washington-based, nonprofit organization that conducts research and policy analysis on issues that have an impact on low-income U.S. residents.  At the Center, Ms. Ross’s work focuses on improving working families’ access to public benefits, including health coverage. 

She conceived and developed the Center’s Start Healthy, Stay Healthy Campaign, a national effort to enlist state and local government agencies, advocacy groups, health and human services providers, schools, businesses, community-based organizations and others to identify children and parents who are eligible for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and to help get them enrolled.   She will be coming to Cleveland to address the critical issue of children’s health care coverage and the pending Congressional decision whether to reauthorize SCHIP.

The BOCC and EFS is hosting the free workshops entitled “Making it Work!  Moving Families’ Access to Healthcare into the 21^st Century” in partnership with CWRU Schubert Center for Child Studies, Ohio Covering Kids & Families, Voices for Ohio’s Children and Invest in Children. 

The event includes two different forums where Ms. Ross’s discussion-topics include: building partnerships among community leaders, public officials and hospital systems to improve health care coverage to children and their families; a look at effective outreach and enrollment strategies among some of the best practices across states to enroll families in healthcare coverage, a federal budget update including the reauthorization of SCHIP. 

The state budget update will be presented by Mary Wachtel, Director of Public Policy from Voices for Ohio’s Children.  The event wraps up with how to advocate —engage the community in helping families to enroll their children in healthcare coverage.

For updated conference information and to register online, visit: www.cuyahogacounty.us.  To learn more about Cuyahoga County’s free health insurance program for children from low to moderate income families visit: www.healthystart.cuyahogacounty.us.