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Free or Low-Cost Health Insurance Now Available to Low-Income Children in Parts of
Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lennox and South Los Angeles

California Community Foundation Awards $4 Million Grant

Los Angeles — Uninsured, low-income children living in specified ZIP codes in Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lennox and South Los Angeles may be eligible to receive free or low-cost health care coverage through a $4 million grant awarded by the California Community Foundation’s Centinela Medical Care Fund to the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) of Greater Los Angeles.

More than 2,600 children ages six to 18 living in these communities are expected to be able to enroll in health care coverage from the CHI through this grant.

The grant also funds outreach efforts to reach thousands of other children in these communities — including those ages zero to 18 who qualify for government programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families — and sign them up for health care coverage under the appropriate program.

“Asking parents to pay for expensive health insurance when they are stretching to put food on the table isn’t the solution,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “And ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away: It shows up in our emergency rooms, in our children’s school attendance and in the rapid increase of chronic health problems such as type 2 diabetes.”

“Here at the California Community Foundation, our goal is to create positive change in Los Angeles. And the CHI coalition — the only group in Los Angeles providing health care coverage to these children — will ensure that vulnerable children receive quality preventive care, regular check ups, comprehensive dental and vision care and education about healthy lifestyle choices. To me, having these children grow into healthy adults is the definition of positive change,” Hernández added.

The grant was awarded through the foundation’s Centinela Medical Care Fund, one of two funds established at the California Community Foundation after the Centinela Hospital Medical Center was converted to a for-profit corporation to ensure that residents in the ZIP codes that had been served by the hospital would continue to have access to quality health care services.

Including this grant to the CHI, the Centinela Medical Care Fund, along with the Centinela Medical Community Fund, has awarded more than $17 million to organizations providing health care services to low-income and uninsured residents of the Centinela Valley. This is the first time the Centinela funds have been used to support health care coverage for eligible children in these communities.

“We decided to fund the Children’s Health Initiative because it’s the only group doing this type of work in Los Angeles County,” said William Miller, chair of the Centinela advisory board.

Launched in 2003, the Children’s Health Initiative (CHI) of Greater Los Angeles is a coalition of more than 50 community organizations working to ensure that all children in Los Angeles County have health care coverage. Since its founding, the CHI has raised more than $100 million toward this goal and helped enroll an estimated 100,000 low-income children in health insurance through Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and Healthy Kids.

“We are really excited by this grant from the California Community Foundation. Los Angeles County consists of many communities, and the Centinela Fund is acting locally to help its kids,” said Howard Kahn, co-convener of the CHI coalition and CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan. “This is a generous grant that we hope inspires others to help us meet our goal of health care coverage for all of Los Angeles’ children.”

The co-conveners of the CHI are The California Endowment, L.A. Care Health Plan and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. The overarching goal of the coalition is to build support for a permanent, long-term funding solution through public policies so that no child in California has to go without health insurance.

“Projects like this demonstrate the power of government entities, nonprofit groups, corporations and foundations collaborating with one another to make a difference in the lives of our children,” said Wendy Schiffer, director of children’s health initiatives at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. “It’s my hope that this will prove to be a successful model for addressing current and future problems facing all Angelenos.”

Established in 1915, the California Community Foundation is one of the largest and most active philanthropic organizations in Southern California, with assets of more than $760 million. In partnership with its donors, the foundation supports nonprofit organizations and public institutions with funds for health and human services, affordable housing, early childhood education, community arts and culture and other areas of need. To learn more, visit the California Community Foundation online at www.calfund.org.

Editor’s Note: For information about CHI eligibility requirements, please visit www.chigla.org or call 1-888-4LA-KIDS. Callers who live in one of the specified Centinela Priority Area 1 ZIP codes are encouraged to state this resident status when they call. For more information about Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and Healthy Kids, please visit www.lacare.org.

For information on the 2005 federal poverty guidelines, which are referred to in the eligibility requirements for the above-mentioned programs, please visit http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/05poverty.shtml.

Donate now to help the CHI provide health care coverage to all of L.A.'s children