The goal of Healthy Kids Mendocino (HKM) is to make sure that all local children have health insurance. Research shows that kids with insurance are much healthier, attend school more regularly, and graduate at higher rates.

FIRST 5 led the effort to create HKM by dedicating $500,000 in 2003. Since the program officially began in 2006, it’s achieved major successes:

• MORE CHILDREN GETTING INSURANCE: Before HKM began, somewhere between 1,500 and 3,000 Mendocino County kids were uninsured. Since May 2006, HKM has signed up nearly 1,600 kids for health insurance.
  
  
• MIDDLE-INCOME CHILDREN INSURED: Before HKM began, families who earned between $40,000 and $60,000 for a family of four, and weren’t insured through their jobs, had to buy expensive private insurance. Now these families can get insurance through HKM for as low as $7 per month per child.

When more kids are insured, the whole community benefits. HKM has:

• SAVED LOCAL HOSPITALS more than $330,000 by reducing the number of hospital visitsby uninsured children;
• INCREASED REVENUE TO LOCAL SCHOOLS by almost $275,000 by reducing the number of school days missed; and
• BROUGHT MORE THAN $1.4 million into the community. When insurance pays a nurse’s salary, she might use it to pay a carpenter, who might use it to get a haircut, etc. The result is more prosperity for all.

HEALTY KIDS MENDOCINO PARTNERS: FIRST 5 Mendocino, Alliance for Rural Community Health, and the Mendocino County Health & Human Services Agency. Funding comes from FIRST 5 Mendocino, Mendocino County, The California Endowment, The California HealthCare Foundation, The Community Foundation of Mendocino County, and Mendocino County business owners and individual donors.

For more information about Healthy Kids Mendocino, call 463-KIDS or click here for the HKM website.