Last week we looked at U.S. Census data regarding the number of people in America without health insurance, and we saw that a large number of people are eligible for various free insurance programs, but haven’t applied. The number may be as high as 14 million.
Today’s Wichita Eagle has a story that may illustrate such a case. A family of four — two adults, two children — earns $2,000 per month, but has no insurance.
Given these facts, it appears that at least the two children in this family are eligible for insurance coverage under HealthWave, which is the implementation of SCHIP in Kansas. This family’s income is roughly 133% of the poverty level for a family of four in Kansas, and according to a page at the HealthWave site, “Children in households with income up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level may qualify for HealthWave.”
I’ve identified one reason why maybe some in Kansas who are eligible for HealthWave haven’t applied: A web page meant to direct people to HealthWave contains at least two clickable links that look like they’d take you to page you need to visit, but they mistakenly refer to the page you’re already viewing. A little bit of proofreading of these web pages would make things a lot easier for applicants.