Help available for MT kids

Danielle Switalski

An application drive was held at the Thompson Falls Job Service Workforce Center this past Thursday to provide information to families interested in health care coverage for their children.

The application drive was part of the Healthy Montana Kids (HMK) program, which provides low cost health care to children up to the age of 19. Children may qualify for HMK if children are Montana residents, U.S. citizens or qualified aliens and family income meets income guidelines based on family size. Depending on income, some families may be ineligible if a parent works for the state of Montana or Montana University System. There are also might be an enrollment delay if a child has health insurance.

“There have been some recent changes, the biggest one being the expansion so they changed the income guidelines, about 30,000 more children are eligible for the program so we’re trying to reach that expansion group as well as families that would already qualify,” said Alisa Hart, an Americorp Vista who helped organize the application drive.

Hart along with Kindra McQuillan hosted the application drive to help families either fill out their applications to apply for health care provided by HMK and spread the word that there is help out there for families who meet the poverty line. Hart said most middle class families would meet the eligibility guidelines, which are based off of a family’s income and have the potential to be approved for HMK, which provides a multitude of health care services.

Hart and McQuillan are traveling to eight locations around Western Montana to host the application drives and get the word out that there is health care coverage available to those who need it. Thompson Falls was their second stop, having come from Libby on Wednesday.

“Since July, we have been doing events like these all over the state, health fairs, set up in libraries and talk to clinics and teachers and all sorts of things along that line and just try to talk to community members who come in contact with families that might be eligible,” said Hart.

Besides helping interested families with the application process for HMK they work on a program called enrollment partners. Enrollment partners is part of spreading the information about the health care available to children by training community members, such as teachers or nurses, to be more knowledgeable about the program and application process. This way, once the application drive is over, there are local people available to sit down with family members and help them with the application process if they are interested.

“Our main job is to make sure people know about it and realize that even if they don’t think they qualify for programs like this they probably do,” said Hart.

To learn more about Healthy Montana Kids please visit www.hmk.mt.gov or call 1-877-KIDSNOW. Information was also left at the Thompson Falls Job Service Center at 2504 Tradewinds Way.