WellPoint Foundation Awards $2.5 Million Grant To The CoverMe Foundation

The CoverMe Foundation To Provide Health Coverage Eligibility Screening And Application Assistance To Uninsured

July 31, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS -- WellPoint Foundation, LLC, a private, non-profit organization wholly funded by WellPoint, Inc., has awarded The CoverMe Foundation a one-year grant in the amount of $2,503,275 to assist the organization in identifying and assisting uninsured persons and families in finding and applying for health care coverage. The grant ties directly to WellPoint Foundation's giving mission to help reduce the number of uninsured Americans.

"Through the WellPoint Foundation's grant making, we can help reduce the number of uninsured and ultimately create a healthier generation of Americans," said Caz Matthews, president, WellPoint Foundation. "We are pleased to have awarded this grant to The CoverMe Foundation to connect uninsured with health care coverage options."

The CoverMe Foundation is an organization dedicated to improving the overall health of citizens in communities throughout the United States by assisting consumers through the entire process of locating and accessing health care coverage. The CoverMe Foundation will use the WellPoint Foundation grant to help those who qualify for government programs apply for health care coverage.

The CoverMe Foundation will also refer those who qualify for commercial plans to the eHealth Insurance program - a program designed to inform uninsured consumers about health insurance and other alternatives available to them and their families. Resources include national and state public assistance programs, as well as low-cost health insurance alternatives available on the private market.

"We recognize that many uninsured do not know they are eligible for government programs or do not know where to go for assistance, and that is why we first educate and then assist the applicant via our facilitation expertise to gain access to our programs," said Alec Shea, president, The CoverMe Foundation. "This grant from WellPoint Foundation will help us achieve our goal for long-term health, and we are delighted to serve our communities on a variety of levels in order to achieve it."

Assistance is available by calling 1-877-NSURME1 or through The CoverMe Foundation's Web site at http://www.covermefoundation.org/. Assistance is also available in Spanish by calling 1.877.8.CUBREME or at http://www.fundacioncubreme.org/.

The WellPoint Foundation supports not-for-profit organizations whose projects and programs align with the Foundation's key initiatives, which include working to reduce the number of uninsured Americans and promoting Healthy Generations, a program to improve public health outcomes in communities across the nation.

About the WellPoint Foundation
The WellPoint Foundation, Inc. is a private, non-profit organization wholly funded by WellPoint, Inc. Through charitable contributions and programs, the Foundation promotes WellPoint 's inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that WellPoint's affiliate health plans serve. With combined assets of $200 million, the Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to reduce the number of uninsured as well as organizations that promote the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These disease states and medical conditions include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company's annual associate giving campaign and provides a 50 percent match of associates' campaign pledges. To learn more about the WellPoint Foundation please visit http://www.wellpointfoundation.org/.

About WellPoint Inc.
WellPoint, Inc. is the largest health benefits company in terms of medical membership in the United States. WellPoint is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), Wisconsin; and through UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at http://www.wellpoint.com/.