Los Angeles Healthy Kids Improves Access to Care and Health Status

The Los Angeles Healthy Kids program provides health insurance to low income children in the county who have no other source of coverage (including undocumented children and children above the income limits for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families). These findings from a longitudinal survey of parents of young children in the program indicate that access to medical and dental care for enrolled children increased dramatically over time, use of the emergency room went down, and parents perceived improvements in the health status of their children. This analysis is one piece of a broader Urban Institute evaluation of the program.