Guest Author - Bonnie Sayers

All Kids is a program that goes into effect July 1, 2006 in the State of Illinois to cover the 250,000 uninsured children in that State. It starts at a $40 monthly premium with a $10 co-pay for each doctor's visit.

The All Kids program will include vision care, dental care, prescription drugs, hospital visits and medical devices. The Application will take from 20-45 minutes online. Households receive an ID number and can save the data to continue within 16 days.

The first page has the following list of questions:

Is someone over the age of 65?
Is child support being received?
Anyone get Social Security Income?
Any Step Parents in the household?
Are there high medical bills?
Anyone have a Disability?

I chose yes to Social Security and Disability before clicking the continue button. The next page indicated I checked yes for Social Security and asked if I was applying for a family member that has a disability? However there were no buttons to reply to this question.

"You can still apply online, but it may be better for you to apply at your local Department of Human Services office. To locate the Department of Human Services office nearest you click here, http://www.dhs.state.il.us/officeLocator/. For more information, call toll-free 1-866-ALL-KIDS (1-866-255-5437)(TTY: 1-877-204-1012 for persons using a teletypewriter)."

I chose the continue button where there was a list of 7 questions informing me I had to gather this data before applying. These include the following:

Date of birth of all in the household
Social Security number for all in household
Alien Rgistration if applicable
Health Insurance for everyone applying
Information about all income received
Amount of child support and/or spousal support being paid to someone else
Amount of child care being paid

At the bottom of each screen are the following options:

Go Back, Help, Print, Cancel or Continue

This next page lets you know that you will need to print out the application and sign it. This can be mailed or faxed to All Kids. There will also be a letter stating what other documents will be needed to send along with the application.

The next screen is where you will enter a password that is 6-8 characters long and can be letters and numbers. I received my household id number along with my chosen password on the following page. The next page wants to know how you learned of All Kids by choosing a box to proceed.

The next page does ask for the name, sex and birthdate of each member of the household. The following page you need to select from a drop down box with person in the household is the applicant. I chose myself and continued to the next page.

This next page has a drop down box for your selected language, race or ethnic group, address, home and work phone numbers. Instead of a selection for State there is a drop down box for the County you reside in. There is also the question of whether they can contact you at work and should you not have a telephone you will list the name and phone number of a contact person.

There is also a link to click at the left side of these pages to get help with completing the application. The application is a pdf file when you are ready to print it out. There are eight levels to the All Kids program, depending on your family size and income.

Since I reside in California with both kids covered by Insurance I did not continue with this application process. This gives you an idea of what is needed to pursue the All Kids program for your family if you reside in Illinois and have no Insurance for your children. The age is 18 and younger for applicants, plus parents.

All Kids toll-free number is 1-866-255-5437. The program Illinois KidCare is now All Kids.