Advocates Rally to Increase Denali KidCare Funding

People rallied outside the Anchorage Legislative Information office to support a bill, Senate Bill 5, that would add 1,300 kids to the Denali KidCare Insurance Program.

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By KTVA CBS 11 News

Story Created: Oct 13, 2011 at 9:31 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Oct 14, 2011 at 1:00 PM AKDT

There are 25,000 Alaska kids who are without health insurance, and Thursday, two dozen people rallied in Anchorage with a hope to reduce that number.

Denali KidCare is a state program that gets 70 percent of its money from the federal government.

The program insures children and pregnant women from families that make less than 175 percent of the federal poverty level, or less than $49,000 a year for a family of four.

Anchorage Democrat Sen. Bettye Davis wants to up that coverage to 200 percent of poverty or, in Alaska, just less than $56,000 a year for the same family of four.

“And it saves the state a whole lot of money to do preventative services rather than wait until somebody's very ill or don't have insurance and have to go to the emergency room,” said Davis.

She claims her bill, which she plans to reintroduce in January, would add coverage for 1,300 uninsured kids and 200 pregnant women.

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