Gloria Agbator, a single mom with pneumonia, fears her uninsured children will get sick, too. “This program is going to be a really good blessing to my family,” she said. Here she started dinner Thursday for, from left, Joseph, 9, Daniel, 13, and Elizabeth, 9, at their Apple Valley home.

Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune

Minn.'s health care safety net expands for thousands of kids

Article by: JENNIFER BROOKS

Star Tribune

July 27, 2012 - 5:49 AM

The state of Minnesota is expanding health care coverage to thousands of uninsured children.

The new initiative, first approved by the Legislature in 2009 and finally implemented this month, will erase barriers such as waiting periods and monthly insurance premium payments for some 16,000 children from lower-income families across the state.

Gloria Agbator wept when she heard the news.

A singleworking mother, Agbator has health insurance for herself through her job, but she cannot afford the monthly premiums needed to include her three children on the plan.

"I'm really happy about it," said Agbator, who is battling pneumonia right now and is worried that her children -- a 13-year-old and 9-year-old twins -- will get sick, too. "I was so scared for my kids. ... This program is going to be a really good blessing to my family."

The health care expansion is targeted to working families such as Agbator's, who make between 150 percent and 200 percent of the poverty level. Agbator, a program manager for a group home in Dakota County, had been worried about how she would afford her children's back-to-school checkups and vaccinations when she got