FamilyCare Advocates Must Spread the Word

This article appeared in the August 2003 issue of Illinois Welfare News.

Now that FamilyCare, a health insurance program for low-wage parents who live with their children 18 or younger, is law, every effort must be made to get people enrolled.  Unfortunately the state has few resources for an elaborate marketing and outreach plan.  So it is up to advocates and social service and healthcare providers to promote the program.

Service providers and others pushing FamilyCare should keep in mind the following eligibility criteria:

  • FamilyCare, like KidCare, covers doctor visits, dental care, specialty medical services, hospital care, emergency services, prescription drugs and more.
  • Parents can enroll in the program if they live in Illinois and if their household income does not exceed 90 percent of the federal poverty level (see chart).
  • Parents must be either U.S. citizens or a permanent legal immigrant who has resided in the United States for five years.
  • The program also covers relative caregivers that meet all of the other eligibility conditions.

Parents can apply with a KidCare application agent or by contacting an Illinois Department of Human Services Local Office.   For more information, call 866.468.7543 or 877.204.1012 (TTY).

Total Family Size,
including parents
Monthly Income equal to or less than:
90% of federal poverty level
2
$909
3
$1,145
4
$1,380
5
$1,616

Report: Good economic times not so good for young men

In its report “Boom Times: a Bust for Less Educated Young Men,” the Center for Law and Social Policy, or CLASP, reports that men 18 to 24 with a high school diploma or less were less likely to work in 1999 than in 1979, another period of economic growth.  CLASP also reports that African American men in the same age group were even worse off.  The employment rate for African American men dropped 13 percentage points, from 66 percent to 53 percent.

In response to the grim data, CLASP recommends an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, increasing the minimum wage, setting more realistic child support orders by states, public jobs for youths, more quality job training programs, and improving pre- and postrelease assistance for prisoners.

A copy of the report can be found at www.clasp.org.

California program evaluated

The Economic Roundtable, a private nonprofit organization located in Los Angeles, recently released a report, “Prisoners of Hope,” an evaluation of the Los Angeles County welfare program, Greater Avenues to Independence, or GAIN.  The program was one model for the 1996 federal welfare reform law.  The report includes the following recommendations:

Promote community college, adult education, or vocational training.  The evaluators found that parents who participated in education and training increased their earnings by 46 percent up to three years after entering the labor force.  However, even though half of welfare parents in the county are in need of a high school diploma or English skills, these parents were twice as likely to be sent to “Job Club” (three weeks of motivation and job search program) than education or training programs.

Almost half of GAIN participants entering the labor force between 1998 and 2001 had no earnings in 2001; 85 percent were poor by federal standards.

Identify and serve welfare recipients with domestic violence, mental health, or substance abuse problems.  The participants with one or more of these barriers were twice as likely to be sent to “Job Club” than referred to clinical services, and four times as many were sanctioned than completed clinical treatment.  These parents also were the lowest earners with an average income of $2,950 in the year 2001.

Screen all parents who have used half of their lifetime limit on welfare for domestic violence, mental health, substance abuse, and disabilities, and provide appropriate clinical services and exemptions from time limits. Sixty-five percent of parents reaching the five-year time limit had one or more major barriers to employment, with a growing proportion of disabled recipients expected to reach the time limit by 2005.  Parents projected to reach the time limit between 2003 and 2005 had an average earned income of $5,391 in 2001.

“Prisoners of Hope” can be found at www.economicrt.org.