Overview

The San Mateo County Children's Health Initiative (CHI) was established to address community-wide concern that at least 17,000 San Mateo County children lacked access to comprehensive health insurance coverage. Through the efforts of a broad-based, our partners, CHI is an umbrella organization that provides easier access to two existing government funded insurance programs (Medi-Cal and Healthy Families) and adds a third (Healthy Kids) to serve families who don't qualify for the first two.

CHI launched its new initiative and the new Healthy Kids program on January 2, 2003 with an expanded outreach and enrollment program, seeking an ambitious goal of covering 100 percent of eligible children. In the first month, CHI enrolled more than 1,500 children into Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and Healthy Kids - approximately 10 percent of all uninsured eligible children.

The initiative is funded with a mix of public and private contributions with close to $8 million raised to date.