FAQ's FOR PARENTS

What is Healthy Kids Mendocino?
Healthy Kids is a broad-based coalition of public and private partners with the goal of providing health insurance coverage to every child in Mendocino County.

When Healthy Kids Mendocino was founded in 2006, at least 2,500 children in Mendocino County lacked access to continuous health insurance. We are thrilled that our collaborative and focused effort has reduced the number of uninsured children to about 1,500 in 2008.  However, with the economic downturn in early 2009, we've noted a dramatic increase in families seeking our assistance.  Approximately 7 out of 10 of these uninsured children come from families where one or more parent is working full-time, but does not have access to job-based insurance for their kids. Of the uninsured children, approximately 2/3 of them are eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. We are working to find these families and help them enroll in these programs. For the children who are not eligible, we offer the CaliforniaKids health insurance program. This provides outpatient primary, specialty, dental, vision and mental health care coverage.

How do children qualify for health insurance?
Application Assistants will help families complete the application form. Annual requalification will be required to maintain coverage.  All three health insurance programs—Medi-Cal, Healthy Families,   and CalKids-- require a family to fill out an application asking  various questions about the parent/guardian, the children in need  of coverage, household monthly income, and health benefit options. See How To Apply for more details.

How much do families pay for their child's insurance?
For Healthy Families and CalKids, parents pay a share of the child’s monthly premium ($4-$15
per month per child depending on the program and family income). Parents also will pay small
co-pays for their children’s visits and prescription drugs (usually $5 or less.) Parents whose children are enrolled in full-scope Medi-Cal do not have to pay a share of the premium or co-pays for doctor’s visits.

FAQ's FOR PARTNERS

How is Healthy Kids Mendocino funded?
About 80% of the uninsured children in Mendocino County are eligible for no- or low-cost insurance programs paid for by federal and state funds.  Since tax money is already going to these programs, it is a top priority of Healthy Kids Mendocino to make sure that children eligible for publicly funded programs are enrolled and are using their coverage to benefit their health.

For children not eligible for publicly funded programs, Healthy Kids Mendocino is working hard to raise funds from local donors and private foundations to provide coverage for these children.  These children are coming from families with parents who are working hard every day, in our local industries, to improve the lives of their children.  However, they are not able to make use of publicly funded programs and they need help from the community. 

If you would like to give the gift of health, please see Support Our Efforts.

Why should all children, regardless of immigration status, have access to insurance?
Just as all children are guaranteed access to education, it is essential to provide every child with access to appropriate health care. Uninsured children are likely to go without needed care, and as a result are also likely to pass on communicable diseases to insured children, in school and in the community. Uninsured children also most often end up receiving care in an emergency room, usually within the public health care system where care is more expensive to provide and typically not reimbursed. Consequently, the community as a whole is burdened with increasing costs as communicable diseases are spread and emergency care becomes more expensive.

Is Healthy Kids maximizing existing federal and state resources?
Healthy Kids’ mission is to enroll children into all available health coverage programs without supplanting existing federal and state dollars with local private and public resources. Healthy
Kids relies first on Medi-Cal and Healthy Families and turns to CalKids only for children who do
not meet the Medi-Cal and Healthy Families eligibility criteria.