Hundreds of Local Children Receive Needed Health Care Thanks to PAMF Grant
This month PAMF made one of its largest single gifts in the Foundation’s history when it provided a $600,000 grant to the Healthy Kids program of the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation. The grant will be used to provide 600 needy local children with essential health care and insurance.
“The recent state budget cuts have negatively impacted county health programs and have reinforced the importance of philanthropic support,” says Richard Slavin, M.D., PAMF’s executive vice president. “This gift reinforces our long-time commitment to keeping children and their families healthy.”
Healthy Kids fills the crucial gap in insurance and health care access for many low- and moderate-income families who can’t insure their children because they lack access to employer-sponsored insurance or are not eligible for public coverage via Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. In Santa Clara County, those families can enroll their children in Healthy Kids.
Launched in 2001, the locally funded Healthy Kids health insurance program increases access to and use of both medical and dental care, which are crucial contributors to children’s overall well-being and health. For $1,000 a year, the Healthy Kids program can provide full medical, dental, vision and mental health benefits to a child.
A study funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation found that the Healthy Kids program increased preventive care, decreased sick visits to the doctor, improved children’s overall health and resulted in fewer missed school days.
“The work that the Santa Clara Family Health Foundation does to help the neediest of our county’s children is constant and critical,” Dr. Slavin says. “Today, more families than ever before are without health insurance. The physicians and professionals of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation recognize this and we are committed to helping children in the communities we serve.”
Through the Santa Cruz Division, PAMF has been a long-time supporter of the Healthy Kids program. To learn more about the program, visit www.healthykidsfund.org.
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