L.A. KIDS UNDER 6 TO GET HEALTH CARE AS A RIGHT COUNTY AGENCY OPENS INITIATIVE FOR $100 MILLION.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

In an unprecedented effort to create comprehensive health care for poor children, a Los Angeles County agency on Monday unveiled a $100 million initiative to provide free and low-cost medical, dental and vision services to qualifying youngsters.

Under the Healthy Kids initiative launched by First 5 L.A., eligible children through the age of 5 can receive all-encompassing health care with premiums capped at $6 per month and co-payments up to $5 per visit.

To qualify, the annual income for a family of four cannot exceed $55,224. Participants must be Los Angeles County residents, but proof of legal residency is not required.

``If children are going to enter kindergarten ready to learn, they need to be healthy in order to learn,'' said Evelyn V. Martinez, executive director of First 5 L.A., at a press conference at Altamed Medical Clinic in East Los Angeles.

First 5 L.A., formerly known as the Los Angeles County Children and Families First Proposition 10 Commission, was created under the proposition to direct tobacco tax dollars to deal with urgent social needs, such as healthy development of youngsters.

The agency currently receives about $130 million a year in tobacco tax revenue and invests in programs including health care, preschool, child- abuse prevention and family literacy. Last August, the agency launched a $100 million initiative to provide high-quality preschool for the county's 3- and 4-year-olds.

According to the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, there are about 349,000 uninsured children in Los Angeles County, including 73,000 younger than age 5.

First 5 L.A. will push to enroll children in its own Healthy Kids initiative, as well as federal-state insurance programs, such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. Of an estimated 73,000 uninsured children under 5 years old, only about 15,000 are expected to qualify for Healthy Kids.

Three organizations in the region have signed up to be providers under Healthy Kids: the Tarzana Treatment Center, at both its Tarzana and Lancaster sites; the Glendale Adventist Medical Center and the Pasadena Public Health Department.

Bill Reimers, clinical director for Tarzana Treatment Center in Tarzana, hopes to double or triple services to indigent children in the primary-care clinic. The 31-year-old center traditionally has focused on substance abusers but opened a primary-care clinic in 1993 to treat the children of substance abusers.

``We have a large population of diabetics,'' said Reimers. ``We see kids who are borderline diabetics. We can begin treatment on them. They have probably never been diagnosed before.''

The clinic staff also routinely sees children who have not had proper immunizations, routine checkups and preventive care.

``Many of them have never been immunized. If they have been immunized, it's maybe one in a series. They are way behind in that. We do catch them up,'' he said.

Healthy Kids is being launched at a time when county government has closed a number of clinics and cut back drastically on services, while demand for health care continues to skyrocket.

Helen Gao, [phone]

helen.gao(at)dailynews.com

WHO TO CALL

For more information about the Healthy Kids initiative, a free and low-cost health care program, call 1-888-FIRST5-LA. Multilingual operators are available to answer questions. The local providers are: Tarzana Treatment Center in Tarzana, [phone]; Tarzana Treatment Center/Antelope Valley in Lancaster, [phone], Ext. 4116; Glendale Adventist Medical Center, [phone], Ext. 16.; and the Pasadena Public Health Department, [phone].

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