Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center donates $100,000 to Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County and $50,000 to Healthy Families

SMSC begins “Cover the Uninsured Week” with a generous donation to two local organizations involved in providing health insurance for uninsured children in our community.

Santa Cruz, Calif. – The board of trustees of Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center (SMSC), now a part of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), recently approved the donation of $100,000 to Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County and $50,000 to Healthy Families. This donation is in addition to PAMF’s $125,000 donation to Healthy Kids announced in February.

Since 2003, PAMF and SMSC have contributed over $800,000 to support children’s access to health insurance through Healthy Kids and Healthy Families.

“This donation is part of PAMF and SMSC’s ongoing commitment to caring for uninsured and underinsured residents in our community,” said Rob Bremner, chair of the SMSC board “We strongly believe in supporting the good health and well-being of Santa Cruz County children.”

“When children in families who cannot afford health insurance are insured, they can receive preventive care that will keep them from having to seek more extensive and expensive care later,” said Larry deGhetaldi, M.D., president of the Santa Cruz region of PAMF. “As a local health care organization with a responsibility to serve our community, this donation is not only the right thing to do, but it makes perfect economic sense. All of the Presidential candidates support universal coverage for America’s children. Until this happens, it is up to local communities to make this a reality for our children.”

Healthy Families is a state program that provides health insurance for children in families at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level ($53,000 for a family of four). It provides health, dental and vision coverage to children who do not have insurance and do not qualify for Medi-Cal. Healthy Kids is a local program that provides medical, dental, vision and mental health coverage for children in low and middle income families at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($63,600 for a family of four).

“PAMF’s generous donation will allow us to roll about 300 kids off of our waiting list, a tremendous boon to families who can’t afford the cost of private insurance,” said Leslie Conner, program director of Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County. “One parent whose child is wait-listed told us he goes to his mailbox every day praying that an enrollment letter from Healthy Kids has arrived. Now, thanks to PAMF’s additional support, that letter is on its way.”

The announcement of SMSC’s donation comes just before the start of Cover the Uninsured Week (April 27 – May 3), a national effort supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to highlight the fact that 47 million Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Of those without insurance, nearly nine million of them are children and more than eight out of 10 are in working families.

To find out more about Cover the Uninsured Week, go to: http://covertheuninsured.org/

To find out more about Healthy Families and Healthy Kids, go to:
Healthy Kids: www.schealthykids.org
Healthy Families: http://healthyfamilies.ca.gov

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Contacts
Mark Riley
Palo Alto Medical Foundation
(831) 460-6034
rileym1@pamf.org