The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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October 9, 2008

Missing person?

What ever happened to the CHIP guy?

By Bev Davis

What ever happened to the CHIP guy?

You know, the tall fella who could talk for hours about the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Fred Cooper is still around, but without funds that used to be provided by grants and other resources, the CHIP guy has had to limit the amount of outreach for the program, where he works as outreach coordinator with Deborah Williams, executive director.

“Funding from grants is no longer available, but there are still so many families who don’t realize they’re eligible for CHIP,” Cooper said. “CHIP has recently expanded its coverage to families in higher income brackets, but there’s no outreach program to help get the word out.”

The retired firefighter is still as sold as ever on the CHIP program and does what he can to promote the program through the Raleigh County Family Resource Network.

“If we could procure funding to get the outreach program going again, we could get more children signed up on this,” Cooper said.

The annual budget for this outreach program is $33,000. Cooper covers Raleigh, Fayette and Wyoming counties. However, previous funding allowed him to reach out to families in myriad ways, he said.

“I used to be spotted at health fairs, sporting events, kindergarten registrations, school events, doctors’ offices, day care facilities, pharmacies and places like that. These were all places where families had the opportunity to get information about CHIP and have questions answered and pick up an application. The result of my being at these events was that hundreds of children in southern West Virginia were covered by this excellent health care plan. Without that extra funding, I haven’t been seen at a lot of those places because the price of gas and living expenses make it hard for me to just do it on my own.”

WV CHIP is a low-cost health care plan for children and teenagers of working families. There is no cost to apply, and no premiums or deductibles to pay. CHIP covers services important to growing children, such as check-ups, vision and dental services, immunizations, hospital visits, prescription drugs and more.

Cooper said he wishes large corporations would see the community benefit of chipping in to make CHIP available to more people.

“There has to be money available somewhere to fund an outreach program that would get the word out to more people,” he said. “There is still a great need for this outreach program as I firmly believe that there are still hundreds of children in this area who could benefit from WV CHIP.”

Anyone interested in helping to increase CHIP outreach may call 304-255-3764. For more information about the program, call the CHIP Helpline at 1-877-982-2447.

— E-mail: bdavis@register-herald.com

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