Children's health plans offered

As the number of uninsured children continues to increase, a local health-care company on Tuesday unveiled new health insurance plans designed specifically for young Utahns.

SelectHealth, which is owned by Intermountain Healthcare, is now taking applications for its two new health plans for children between the ages of two weeks and 18 years old. By Tuesday afternoon, two families had already signed up for the coverage, which will begin Jan. 1.

"We're interested in being creative in offering options for families, and specifically kids in this instance, to get coverage or make it accessible to them," SelectHealth spokesman Jason Burgess said.

"This is something we were excited to be able to do on our end, being the first to try to address this specifically for kids, because they do make up a large number of the insured."

Recent studies place the number of Utah's uninsured children between 70,000 and 90,000. A working group on the uninsured, created by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., has explored proposals to mandate health-care coverage for all Utah children, one of the governor's stated priorities.

The new SelectHealth plans allow children to be insured, even if their parents are unable to afford coverage for themselves. They range in price from $65 to $92 per month for a child age 0-6 and from $54 to $76 per month for a child age 7-18.

Under the company's base-level plan, parents would pay a deductible for office visits and urgent care visits. The deductibles are waived in the high-level plan. Both plans will have a pharmacy benefit of $500 per child per year.

SelectHealth data indicates 95 percent of children covered under current plans would never reach that $500 annual limit, Burgess said.

For more information or to enroll in a plan, call 801-442-6293 or 1-800-442-3125.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com