Medi-Cal covers over half—or 5.4 million—of California’s children, and covers more of California’s Latinx, Black, and Native American children than any other provider. Three-fourths of children enrolled in Medi-Cal are children of color. Making sure all children—regardless of their race or county where they live—have access to quality preventative health care and supports helps build a stronger, healthier future for California.
To advance child health equity in California, The Children’s Partnership, the California Children’s Trust, and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality launched The Equity Through Engagement (ETE) project. This project examines opportunities to integrate community partnerships and interventions into California’s Medi-Cal financing and delivery systems to advance child health equity, including through addressing social drivers of health (SDOHs).
This project produced a series of resources to inform and influence new approaches to child health equity:
- Family Engagement Report presents the results of qualitative research with parents and families to better understand their experiences with Medi-Cal and what they need to productively engage with Medi-Cal and managed care plans.
- Child Opportunity Workbook assesses social drivers of health by race and county across California using Child Opportunity Index (COI) scores developed by Brandeis University and the Ohio State University. The workbook provides policymakers and advocates interested in improving child health care equity with a snapshot of disparities in opportunity across California.
- Care Coordination Issue Briefs, published by The Children’s Partnership and the California Children’s Trust, discuss why care coordination services are a pivotal component in whole-child health care and their relevance to the EPSDT entitlement, and share ways to better deliver culturally concordant services to Medi-Cal beneficiaries.