State of New Jersey

Office of the Child Advocate

240 West State Street
PO Box  092
Trenton, NJ 08625

(609) 984-1188

Child Advocate Visits Monmouth Child Care Centers in Grassroots Effort

 to Insure More NJ Children

In a grassroots effort to continue New Jersey's expansion of health coverage for children, New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald Chen on Friday visited three child care centers in Monmouth County to inform parents, staff and social workers about ways to help parents enroll their children in the NJ FamilyCare program.

Chen visited the St. Ann Child Care Center in Keansburg, the Red Bank Primary School and the Little People at Work Child Care Center in Neptune.

"Governor Corzine has made it a priority to ensure that every single New Jersey child has health coverage," said Chen, who is also New Jersey's Acting Child Advocate. "We have made great strides in providing coverage to more children. More than 102,000 new children have received coverage through NJ FamilyCare since 2006."

"This is a call to action for each of us to do everything in our power to ensure children get the insurance coverage they need," Chen said. "Working families cannot build a strong economic future for their children without stable, secure and affordable health insurance."

During the center visits, Chen provided letters to parents urging them to look into NJ FamilyCare if their children are uninsured and provided staff with NJ FamilyCare information and applications. He also spoke with the children about ways to stay healthy by preventing the spread of germs.

"Providing our families with this very important information is an important step toward reducing the number of uninsured children," said Dr. Timber Washington, director of the Little People at Work Preschool in Neptune, which serves about 125 children ages 1 to 5 years.  "We welcome and support the state's efforts to expand this important program."

"We know how important it is for children to have healthcare coverage," said Dr. Laura Morana, superintendent of the Red Bank School District. "We welcome the Office of the Child Advocate's efforts to inform parents about the availability of the NJ FamilyCare Program and, as a district, we continue to provide information about this program to our parents."

"We appreciate and support the efforts of both the Child Advocate and the Governor in informing parents about the availability of health coverage for children," said Jane Abrahamsen, director of the St. Ann Child Care Center in Keansburg, which serves 70 children in its preschool program.  "We stand ready to assist our parents in applying for coverage so our children get the healthy starts they need."

The NJ FamilyCare program recently hit a landmark milestone of 102,000 new children enrolled since January 2006. As a result of the first-in-the-nation Express Lane Eligibility initiative, the elimination of premiums for some working families and a broadcast media campaign, more than 12,000 children have been enrolled in NJ FamilyCare since June 2009.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services named New Jersey the recipient of a $988,177 grant to conduct a school and community partnership enrollment effort that includes hiring a school-based NJ FamilyCare facilitator to perform outreach to families with children who are eligible but not yet enrolled. The funding is expected to be used to pilot enrollment programs in 10 school districts and various community-based organizations that will assist the districts.

This year, the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate vice-chaired a workgroup, appointed by Governor Jon S. Corzine, to identify ways to boost NJ FamilyCare enrollment. One area of focus is strategies for enrolling hard-to-reach populations, such as minorities and immigrants. This resulted in collaboration among various state agencies.

For example, the Departments of Education and Human Services, with assistance from the Child Advocate, are expanding bilingual outreach to immigrant families with school-age children.  Starting later this month, school children whose native language is Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Haitian Creole, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Urdu and Vietnamese will receive informational materials through the schools in their parents' native language. 

"Enrollment information in the parent's native language will make it easier for limited-English speaking parents to learn more about and access this important health service for their children," Chen said.

NJ FamilyCare is a free or low-cost program for income-eligible families. For instance, a family of four earning up to $77,175 can qualify to insure their children for about $130 a month in this state- and federally-funded program.

Through the Governor's initiatives, New Jersey has eligibility for NJ FamilyCare set at 350 percent of the federal poverty level -- one of the most generous levels in the nation. In addition, New Jersey expanded this program to cover all parents up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. 

In addition, higher-income families can access NJ FamilyCare ADVANTAGE, a "buy-in" program for families earning more than 350 percent of the federal poverty level. The maximum monthly premium is $411 for a family with three or more children. 

For more information about the NJ FamilyCare programs, including information in 170 languages, call 1-800-701-0710 or visit www.njfamilycare.org.

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