query from the LA Times for CaPA docs
Office Manager
CaPA Physicians,
I'm working on a story for the Health section of the LA Times about
the S CHIP program. I want it to be less about the politics of the
debate and
more about the reality of insured, or uninsured children. Simply put,
I want readers to see stories of what it does to peace of mind to have
insurance, or not have it.
I'm looking for several Southern California families (each with at
least 2 children) to illustrate the story.
1. A family with good employer-sponsored (or private) health insurance
who will talk to me about what it means to peace of mind to have
health insurance. How do they use it, how often do their children go
in to see a doctor, are they at all hesitant about calling a doctor
when a child gets sick?
2. A family receiving S CHIP coverage for their children--preferably a
family at the high end of income which, in most California counties
is, I believe, about $$47,000 a year. What would they do without it,
what are their children's health needs, again, how often do they go to
the doctor, have they ever had an experience of going to the doctor
and catching something sooner rather than later?
3. Finally, an uninsured family with working parents who make too much
to qualify for MediCal, and still too much to qualify for SCHIP, and
truly cannot afford to insure the family. In this family, I'd like to
find a family who has a child struggling with a chronic, medically
manageable disease like asthma in one of the children. How do they
manage to get what the child needs? What would coverage mean to them?
I'm NOT looking for horrible, terrible, gut-wrenching, disastrous
stories. Rather, run-of-the mill stories of what health insurance, or
lack of it, means to working families whose children are mostly
healthy, but might have diseases which are and should be medically
manageable.
I know you've got a significant network. Could you put the word out
that I'm looking for people who will talk to me on the record, perhaps
have their pictures taken.
Within this group, the uninsured, working family will be the
centerpiece. The other two, fully insured and SCHIP insured, will be
sidebars.
The families need to be in the Los Angeles area, if possible.
Think you can help? If not, please let me know if you have other ideas
for finding people.
Best, Susan
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