IHPS California

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Coverage Initiatives

California counties—which for more than two decades have had the primary responsibility
for providing health care to uninsured residents—have created a nationally recognized model for expanding health coverage and creating systems change called the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI). Santa Clara County launched the first CHI in 2001 with a diverse mix of public financing and private foundation support. CHIs have established a vision of health coverage for all children that are county residents. To date, these programs have cumulatively enrolled approximately 87,000 children in their Healthy Kids programs and covered tens of thousands more under Medi-Cal and Healthy Families.

The California Map below shows the current status and developmental stage of each CHI. CHI evolution occurs across four developmental stages with the amount of time spent in each stage varying based on available financing, operational and systems capabilities and local conditions. Click on the map legend to get a description of each stage.

More information on each county program can be found by accessing the summary table, Overview of Local Children’s Coverage Expansions (pdf) and in the Healthy Kids Enrollments and Wait Lists table (pdf). Reports from rigorous evaluations of CHIs in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Los Angeles Counties can be found on our Evaluation Page.