Silicon Valley eyes health coverage for uninsured children

SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) -- The high-tech, wealthy Silicon Valley county of Santa Clara aims to be the first in the United States to guarantee health care coverage to all its uninsured children, local officials said.

The Children's Health Initiative Plan, unveiled on Wednesday and slated to begin in January 2001, sets aside $14 million a year to cover the county's 69,000 uninsured children -- something supporters say is vital for those left behind in Silicon Valley's technology boom.

"No other county has done this," Susan Price-Jang, a spokeswoman for People Acting in Community Together, a group which has supported the plan, said in a telephone interview. "It is time that Silicon Valley became leaders in not only issues of technology but also in issues of social advancement."

The theme of uninsured children has received national attention as the presidential candidates have campaigned on the issue. Vice President Al Gore has promised access to affordable health insurance to 11 million uninsured children, while Republican George W. Bush Gore would reduce the total number of uninsured by subsidizing their ability to buy private coverage, expand medical savings accounts and make the cost of long-term care deductible.

In Santa Clara, the preliminary plan comes after the largest city in the county, San Jose, shot down a similar proposal last June to use its slice of a financial settlement with the tobacco industry to provide health care coverage for uninsured children.

But the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is expected to give final approval later this month to the program backed by the county's tobacco settlement money, a tobacco tax, foundations and the private sector.

"It's as good as a done deal," Susan Fitts, Santa Clara County's director of communication, said in a telephone interview.

The program would provide health insurance to the 69,000 children who live in families whose income is 300 percent of the federal poverty levels or below. For a family of four this would mean an income of about $50,000 a year.

Another goal of the initiative is an outreach effort to enroll as many as an estimated 50,000 of these children who are eligible but currently not signed up for subsidized health care programs.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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