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Amy Abrams with the Alabama Department of Public Health was the speaker for the Oct. 11 Rotary Club meeting. Abrams gave a presentation on the All Kids and All Babies programs in Alabama.

Abrams has been a social worker for over 23 years and her role is to work children’s health insurance programs or CHIP. The purpose of the program is to provide health insurance to uninsured children under the age of 19. Abrams is the outreach worker for Marengo and the surrounding area.

All Kids Insurance has been around for 25 years and Alabama was the first CHIP program to start All Kids for children under the age of 19. Abrams said that All Kids is often confused with Medicaid, but is not part of the Medicaid program. 

“All Kids is for families and children that do not qualify for Medicaid. It goes by income limits. What all kids provides is all health care for things such as checkups, immunizations, vision, dental, mental health, or substance abuse. It’s anything and everything for the children,” said Abrams.

Therapies for autistic children are also covered under All Kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abrams said to be eligible for All Kids, participants must be an Alabama resident and must be a U.S. citizen or eligible immigrant. They must be under the age of 19, cannot be covered by other insurance companies, or live in an institution.

“It’s low cost, but there is still some cost involved with it. It goes by the number of people in the household and their monthly income,” said Abrams. “When we look at it and break it down, say for a family of four for a year, they can still make up to $95,000 a year for that family. We have a wide range of people that still qualify and they call it the working man’s insurance because such a wide group of people fall into that category.”

All Kids has a yearly premium that could be either $104 for the families that fall on the higher side of the income limit, or it could be $52 for the year. There are no copayments for Cognito for regular visits, even for vision and dental.

“All Kids insurance is a very good insurance for working families and people that do qualify. A lot of people just don’t realize that it is available for families,” said Abrams.

Abrams moved on to discuss All Babies which is a new program in Marengo County that began on June 1. All Babies is comprehensive health care coverage for an unborn baby and the mothers who don’t qualify for Medicaid. This new coverage is available to pregnant women and their unborn children through Alabama’s Children’s Health Insurance Program in an effort to improve health outcomes.

All Babies began a few years ago and existed in only three counties. In June, it was expanded to 30 more counties. Abrams said they are hoping to eventually expand it to the whole state.

“The goal of All Babies is to reduce the infant mortality rate and to have healthy Alabama babies. A lot of times we find the mothers that do not qualify for Medicaid also don’t have other health insurance, so they don’t get prenatal care,” said Abrams. “So they show up at the emergency room to deliver and then had no care and there may be problems that we could have avoided.”

All Babies is going to be the same BlueCross BlueShield policy that All Kids is and will have the same services. The main difference is All Babies is for an older group of people ages 19 and up because All Kids coverage stops at 19 years old. All Babies covers the nine months of pregnancy and for two months postpartum.

“The eligibility requirements for All Babies, of course, is to be pregnant. They have to reside in an eligible county, and they cannot be covered by Medicaid. They also can’t be covered by another comprehensive health care coverage,” said Abrams. “They also have to fall within the income guidelines. It is the exact same guidelines as All Kids so both programs go by that income assessment.”

Applications for both programs can be picked up at the health department and they can also be found on https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/allbabies/faq.html. 

“This is a good resource for women to have. So if you run into someone or know someone in need, refer them to these resources,” said Abrams.