Packard Foundation Provides $1.9M Grant to Santa Clara County’s Healthy Kids Program
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation yesterday announced a $1.9 million grant to the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation to help "buoy" the county's Healthy Kids program (Packard Foundation release, 12/12). Healthy Kids, administered by Santa Clara Family Health Plan and part of the county's Children's Health Initiative, covers uninsured children whose families are undocumented immigrants or have annual incomes of up to three times the federal poverty level, or $52,956 for a family of four, and are ineligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. Participants in the programs receive comprehensive coverage, and some pay small premiums and copayments on a sliding scale. Premiums and copayments are waived for families who cannot afford them (California Healthline, 7/31). The foundation's grant will provide premium subsidies for 1,840 children in the program over the next year after funds from public sources, including the county and the Children and Families First Commission, have been used. In addition, the foundation will fund an evaluation of the Children's Health Initiative this year.
Eugene Lewit, interim co-director of the foundation's Children, Families and Communities program, said, "This program is being watched by decision makers across the country. If the Children's Health Initiative is to serve as a model for the rest of the nation, the program needs to be carefully evaluated and the results of that evaluation should be widely disseminated." Between 500 and 800 children have enrolled in Healthy Kids each month since its inception in January. The Packard Foundation has already donated $1 million to CHI, including $350,000 for the creation of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation. Linda Baker, Packard Foundation program officer, said, "Santa Clara County has developed a unique model of providing universal health insurance coverage for children in working families, and the program, in its beginning stages now, deserves a chance to bloom" (Packard Foundation release, 12/12).
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