Preventive Care Enrollment Opens : Health: Low-income women can sign up for prenatal and postnatal program. Key question is how many are willing or able to pay the fee.

In what is viewed as the first test of Gov. Pete Wilson’s preventive medical programs for the “working poor,” an enrollment drive has been launched for a new state project to help treat pregnant mothers and their babies who are just above the official poverty line.

Under the new Access for Infants and Mothers program, women who enroll are required to contribute 2% of their annual family income, plus a later payment of $50 to $100. Depending on family size and federal definitions of poverty, the total charges will vary from $405 to $1,448.

This is still well below the average costs of prenatal and postnatal care for most women, but the key question is how many women will be willing or able to make the payments.

Sign-ups are being sought from as many as 12,000 pregnant women whose family income is 200% to 250% of the federal poverty level. In the first days of the program, just nine women have completed registration. Close to $160 million in state money has been appropriated for the next three years to help fund the program.

In exchange for their payments, the women--who must not have passed the 30th week of pregnancy--will receive at no further cost all necessary care for themselves through the prenatal period, the delivery of their babies and care for two months thereafter. Their babies will receive all necessary care until age 2.

If the program enrolls sufficient numbers and proves a success, another Wilson proposal--to make pediatric care available on a similar basis to children under age 6 whose families have an income no more than 300% of the poverty level--may gain impetus for legislative passage.

But some health reform advocates, such as those in the group Health Access, have asserted that most eligible women do not have the disposable cash needed to participate in the Wilson programs.

Some of the program organizers are also expressing doubts about sufficient enrollment.

“At the time we were conceiving this, it seemed there would be enough disposable income,” said Rita Gordon, a member of the supervising state agency, the California Major Risk Medical Insurance Board. “But as the recession deepens, the critics could be proven right.”

The program’s executive director, John Ramey, said: “This offering has only been available about 10 days. I don’t think there’s any information one way or another yet to indicate whether women will buy this thing.”

But Ramey said he believes the prospect of unlimited medical treatment at no cost above the initial contributions, even if major medical problems develop for the mother or the baby, makes the program a good deal.

The state has retained J.P. Kennedy & Co. of Pasadena to handle enrollments and there is a toll-free phone number--(800) 433-2611--for bilingual information about how to enroll.

Ramey said that in order to expedite enrollments, the state has agreed to pay a $50 fee to doctors, hospitals, nurses or insurance agents who assist enrollees in filling out the forms. The forms have been compressed to three pages, compared to the 14-page Medi-Cal application form.

Money for the program came from taxes collected through the tobacco tax initiative approved by voters two years ago.

“We’re putting scarce tax dollars where we think they will do the most good, at work during the birthing period, to give these children as good a start as we can,” said Clifford Allenby, chairman of the Major Risk Medical Insurance Board.