Healthy Montana Kids

Abstract

In 2010 it was estimated that 23,200 Montana children were without health insurance. Montana has an above average number of uninsured children even though the state offers health insurance for free to children if the family is below 250 percent of the poverty line. This insurance program is called Healthy Montana Kids or HMK. To determine why more children are not signed up for HMK I asked the question, “Why are children that qualify for HMK not insured?” To answer this question I worked closely with Community Health Partners, CHP. CHP provide me of a list of patients that possibly qualified for HMK. I then called the guardian of the patient and talked to them about HMK and offered to send them an application. From calling these families it was determined that the main reasons children are not enrolled in HMK is because either the guardians were unaware of the program or the guardian had not had time to fill out the application. Two months later I recalled the families that I had sent an application to in order to determine if they had filled out and returned the application, needed help filling out the application, or had any questions.