UA Receives Second RWJF Grant to Aid Alabama

UA Receives Second RWJF Grant to Aid Alabama's Uninsured Children and Adults


Dr. Rex E. Culp	John Wheat, M.D.

UA is again preparing to lead the state in helping uninsured children with a grant of almost $1 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for the foundation's Covering Kids & Families project.

UA's Dr. Rex E. Culp, research chair and professor of human development and family studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences, and John Wheat, M. D., professor of community and rural medicine in the College of Community Health Sciences, co-principal investigators on the project, have received a $900,000 grant from RWJF to connect Alabama's approximately 50,000 or more eligible uninsured children with free or low-cost health care coverage offered through Medicaid, ALL Kids, or the Caring Program for Children.

The grant is part of a four-year $55 million national RWJF initiative that offers grants to statewide and local coalitions throughout the country to increase the number of eligible children and adults benefiting from federal and state health care coverage programs.

The grant will be used to find and enroll eligible families, simplify enrollment and renewal processes, and coordinate health care coverage programs. In Alabama, a family of four earning up to $36,200 a year or more may qualify for coverage. There are an estimated 70,000 uninsured children in Alabama -- with 50,000 or more eligible for one of Alabama's three health care coverage programs for children.

Covering Kids and Families will build on the success of Covering Kids to ensure that even more eligible children get the needed health care coverage. Culp and Wheat led the "Covering Alabama Kids" project in 1999.

For more information about the Covering Kids & Families initiative, visit www.coveringkids.org. For more information about Covering Kids and Families in Alabama, call Tracy Palmer at 348-9641 or e-mail tpalmer@ches.ua.edu.