Community: Chula Vista (County of San Diego)

Population: 230,000

Summary

Recognizing that cities can play a role in enhancing parent and family awareness about no- and low- cost health insurance for children, the City of Chula Vista’s mayor convened a task force to explore how the city might best focus its limited resources. The task force included representatives from public agencies, the private sector, a university and nonprofit community organizations, who collaborated on exploring what types of activities the city could undertake to promote enrollment in no- or low- cost health insurance options for eligible children. The task force also worked with the city to identify target communities and avoid duplicating outreach activities. The city’s “Fun to Be Fit” program, offered through the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, served as a pilot project for focused outreach activity.

Program Highlights

• Chula Vista initiated conversations with a local hospital, university and nonprofit organizations involved in children’s health to promote ongoing collaboration and identify ways the city might connect families with affordable health insurance for their children.
• The city focused its efforts on a popular parks and recreation program as a way to connect with families of potentially eligible children. It collaborated with a community group to help families of potentially eligible children complete the application process.

Task force participants agreed to use their collective resources without creating expensive new programs or duplicating existing efforts. After much discussion, the group recommended using the city’s “Fun to Be Fit” program as a pilot project to identify uninsured children and connect their parents with local agencies that could help enroll them no- or low-cost health insurance program. The pilot project added a simple additional form to the on-site “Fun to Be Fit” registration packet. Printed in both English and Spanish, the form asked “Do you have health insurance for your child?”

The Chula Vista Collaborative agreed to serve as the coordinating entity for evaluating family eligibility, assisting families and distributing health insurance feedback forms that indicate the family has “no children’s health insurance” to its clinic partners. The Chula Vista Collaborative offers an assessment and initial screening to ensure families are ready to work with the certified application assistant (the individual who helps the family prepare and submit an application for health insurance.) Once the assessment is completed, the collaborative forwards the information to a certified application assistant who can help the families complete the application.