City Receives Grant To Reduce Number Of Uninsured Children
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Mayor Bill Peduto proudly announced Tuesday that Pittsburgh was selected as one of only eight cities in the country to receive funding to reduce the number of uninsured children.
The $200,000 grant is from the National League of Cities - a group designed to help city leaders build better communities.
"Children who don't have access to health care more than likely don't have access to a lot of other opportunities that are there in life," Peduto said.
The mayor said there about 2,000 uninsured kids and teens in the City of Pittsburgh.
The money will be used mostly to find those children and register them in public health insurance plans such as CHIP - the Pennsylvania Children's Health Insurance Program.
The grant requires the city to enroll at least 50 percent of uninsured children, but officials say they plan to far exceed that.
"Pittsburgh is going for the full number. We're going for 100 percent of the children in Pittsburgh being able to get access to health care," Peduto said.
Various city, county, and even state leaders will be working on the initiative. They say although locating the uninsured will be a challenge, they have a plan.
They will work with the schools, and City Council members to take the information to different neighborhoods.
"We're going to be working closely with our 311 team to use that system in a more proactive way to get the information out about the enrollment campaign to callers. We're also going to use opportunities like mayor's night in and mayor's night out," Betty Cruz with the Bureau Of Neighborhood Empowerment said.
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