1st Tobacco Taxes Allocated

The first tobacco tax dollars are beginning to flow into Orange County with the local Children and Families Commission’s decision Wednesday to spend more than $4 million this year to improve the lives of young children.

The money will fund four programs to provide poor families with day care and health services and prevent child abuse. It is part of the $49 million that Orange County is expected to receive this year as its share of the 50-cents-a-pack tobacco tax approved in 1998 as Proposition 10. In the next three months, the panel will decide how the balance of this year’s funds will be spent. By law, the money goes to help children from birth through age 5.

The largest amount--$2.2 million--will be shared among 13 high-birthrate hospitals to hire social workers and others to assist families with newborns in signing up for subsidized or low-cost health insurance plans available to the working poor.

“This is the first step toward every newborn in Orange County having a health care [link] from the day they leave the hospital,” said Mike Ruane, executive director of the commission.

Recent health studies have shown that low-income families in Orange County have inadequate access to health care. About 13%, or nearly 90,000 local children, are without any health coverage, according to the Orange County Health Needs Assessment, which was published last year.

The majority of these children are eligible for state-run insurance programs--such as Medi-Cal and the Healthy Families Program--or low-cost programs offered by some statewide health plans, but their parents--who, in many cases, are immigrants--don’t have the resources or the know-how to take advantage of them, health care advocates said.

“The variety of programs is confusing, and how they work is very confusing to most people,” said Marty Earlabaugh Gordon. “There also is a lack of knowledge and the need for basic education about why having insurance and regular checkups are important, even for healthy children.”

Each of the hospitals will receive about $150,000 to hire the staff. The commission grants are contingent on the money going to augment existing programs and staff, not to fund existing positions.

At Children’s Hospital of Orange County, families will be linked with social workers and assigned an individual case manager to ensure that home health care is going as planned. The hospital provides these services now, but the additional funding will ensure that all discharged patients get the same level of service.

Case managers “will assist in making insurance coverage arrangements and check to see that the newborn has a primary care physician,” CHOC spokeswoman Janet Lansing said. “They will also follow through after discharge to see that routine care or other follow-up medical care is being done.”

The four programs approved Wednesday are part of the commission’s “immediate action plan.” They are, in large part, an expansion of programs or proposals from existing agencies that can begin serving more people almost immediately, commission members noted. The programs were discussed in depth and given a preliminary go-ahead earlier in the year.

At the meeting in the County Hall of Administration, the commission also approved its strategic plan for the remainder of 2000. It lays out a broad agenda for future funding, singling out early childhood health needs and school readiness, such as literacy and reading programs, Ruane said.

The other funds authorized Wednesday include $1 million to expand services at five county community or neighborhood centers. The money will pay for 11 nurses and health access counselors, as well as equip a mobile health van.

The idea is to bring health care and wellness checkups into the community, especially in areas where people find it difficult to go to hospitals and doctors because of a lack of transportation and child care. The program also will restore the home nurse program, which was cut sharply after the county’s bankruptcy.

An additional $550,000 was allocated to provide child care for 50 to 60 families identified as high risk by child protective services. The respite program will offer these families, in which there is a history of abuse or neglect, the chance to get treatment for alcoholism, drug addiction and other problem behaviors.

“It is an intervention program to keep these families together by getting parents the support services they need,” Ruane said.

The panel also approved $450,000 to be spent at the Heritage House in Costa Mesa and the nonprofit group’s new facility in Anaheim. It will pay for child development programs and a residential substance abuse program for pregnant women to reduce the impact of drugs and alcohol on newborns.

The commission operates independently and receives funding directly from a state trust fund that accumulates $680 million to $700 million each year in tobacco taxes. The money is distinct from other money allocated to each county because of a national settlement of tobacco liability suits.

Each of the counties has its own commission. In addition, a statewide commission, headed by actor-director Rob Reiner, will spend about $140 million, 20% of the annual revenue. The remaining 80% is distributed to the county commissions according to the number of births each year. Orange County receives about 9%.