State Official Details Health Insurance Plan

California Health and Welfare Secretary Sandra R. Smoley made a local stop Friday to detail Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed comprehensive health insurance plan, which is designed to aid thousands of uninsured, low-income children.

“We have recently received $4 billion in federal money for the next five years to insure children whose families fall above the poverty line but cannot purchase health care insurance,” Smoley said during a news conference at the Rea Assessment Center, 600 Hamilton St., in Costa Mesa.

Under the proposal, nearly 600,000 children would be provided state health care coverage, Smoley said. In most cases, parents of the children would make too much money to qualify for free Medi-Cal benefits but lack the income to afford health insurance. The services would include immunization, vision, hearing, cardiac and other care.

State officials used the Rea Assessment Center as a stage to showcase the governor’s proposal because it serves thousands of impoverished students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

The center in the last year handled about 2,700 medical cases involving children whose parents could not afford medical care, said Mac Bernd, superintendent of the school district.

“It’s an important concept,” Bernd said. “If we don’t have kids who are healthy, ready to come to school and learn, we are wasting valuable money.”