The Caring Program for Children. The Michigan experience

M. Udow, V. K. Smith and M. H. Mason
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, Detroit 48226.

Public-private partnerships may offer the best opportunity in the near-term for addressing the problem of the uninsured. In Michigan, a broad spectrum of groups has studied the issue of the uninsured and, despite the diversity of the groups, arrived at a consensus that providing coverage to uninsured children is an urgent priority. The Caring Program for Children, a private program initiated by Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania to provide primary and preventive health care coverage to children in low-income, uninsured families, gained support from the Michigan legislature and advocacy and provider groups as a means to address the problem. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Social Services joined to expand the Caring Program for Children from a private program to a public-private venture funded by federal and state funds and private donations that has the potential to provide coverage to more than 12,000 children. The Michigan experience may be instructive to other states attempting to devise immediate local solutions to the problem of the uninsured.