Drafter
Clerk 5/7/2007
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A MOTION relating to children's health; adopting policies and a measurement and evaluation plan for a Children's Health Initiative and accepting a report on the health of children in King County, in accordance with the requirements of the 2007 Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 15662, Section 83, Proviso P4.
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WHEREAS, King County's mission for the health of the public is to identify and promote the conditions under which all people can live within healthy communities and can achieve optimum health, as adopted in Motion 12475, and
WHEREAS, King County's goal is to protect and improve the health and well-being of all people in King County, as defined by per person healthy years lived, and
WHEREAS, whenever possible, King County will employ strategies, policies and interventions to reduce health disparities across all segments of the population, and
WHEREAS, it is the intent of the county to improve the health of children, and
WHEREAS, significant disparities in children's health by race, ethnicity, region, and income persist in King County and in some cases are growing, and
WHEREAS, research shows that effective policy for ensuring healthy children, resulting in healthy, productive adults, rests on removing barriers that prevent children from achieving consistent access to comprehensive health care, and
WHEREAS, the main barriers children face in receiving consistent access to comprehensive health care are lack of insurance, failure to enroll in an insurance plan and failure to access a consistent source of high quality health care services, and
WHEREAS, Washington State, through enactment of Senate Bill 5093, has expanded health care insurance coverage to thousands more children and simplified the enrollment process, and
WHEREAS, the State intends to provide affordable insurance coverage options for all children by 2010, and
WHEREAS, fifteen thousand children in King County are uninsured, and
WHEREAS, under th...
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