MCCP Insures Fairfax County's Children

Last weekend, I attended the 2011 "Dress Up With Grown Ups Gala" for the Medical Care for Children Partnership or MCCP. I had not heard about the MCCP Foundation before the dinner, but attended after I received an invitation and learned that a friend of mine was involved as a sponsor.

The MCCP is a public-private partnership that works with Fairfax County to provide health insurance to working parents without health insurance whose incomes are too high for Medicaid but too low to be able to afford healthcare - the cutoff is about $55,000. They work with Kaiser Insurance and private medical providers to provide services. Since 1986, they have provided insurance to over 86,000 Fairfax County children.

MCCP currently assists over 1,000 children enrolled including 382 in the Alexandria part of Fairfax County which is the largest population served in the County. There is a significant population of families receiving assistance on the U.S. 1 Corridor.

At the dinner, we heard from Jorge Ramallo whose mother received help from MCCP when he was a child. He ticked off all of the pediatric and other visits by himself and his siblings and talked about the peace of mind health insurance brought to his mother when they lived in the Springfield area. He's now a first-year medical student at Yale University.

Many people take health insurance for granted, but there is an entire community in Fairfax County where it is out of reach. This is an organization that is providing some needed services in the County and especially in the U.S. 1 Corridor. I was very happy to learn about this terrific organization.