The Greater Milwaukee Foundation has committed $100,000 to two area agencies to support their efforts in educating low-income Milwaukee residents on their health insurance coverage options.
Following changes in Medicaid eligibility and the introduction of the health insurance marketplace, the awarding of the grants will also help the agencies assist area residents with the marketplace enrollment process.
“Information and access are critical for the health of individuals and families in our community,” said Janel Hines, director of grant programs at the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. “The foundation is supporting outreach and enrollment efforts to help ensure that eligible individuals access benefits.”
The Milwaukee Health Department will use a $50,000 grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to add two health access assistants to the staff of its Community Healthcare Access Program. Each assistant will be responsible for providing education, outreach and enrollment assistance to low-income residents during the open enrollment period, which started Oct. 1 and will close at the end of March 2014.
Another $50,000 grant will support Columbia St. Mary’s in contracting with Covering Kids and Families, a Wisconsin health care enrollment education and outreach organization. The organization is pushing a consumer education and outreach campaign to help health care organizations, community clinics and health care enrollment professionals as they assist low-income and uninsured residents with health care coverage options.
The two grants were distributed during the foundation’s third quarter competitive and discretionary grant cycle. Dollars distributed during the third quarter exceeded $1.1 million.
Within the same cycle, the foundation awarded:
*$50,000 to SHARP Literacy, Inc.
*$100,000 to ACTS Housing
*$70,000 to the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
*$100,000 to La Casa de Esperanza
*$100,000 to the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative
*$35,000 to Project RETURN
*$10,000 to the Milwaukee Area Workforce Funding Alliance
*$25,000 to YWCA of Greater Milwaukee
*$60,000 to the River Revitalization Foundation
*$40,000 to the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee
