Alliance for Health - Alameda

The Alameda Alliance for Health is a not-for-profit managed care program in Alameda County, California. It has offers two programs: Alliance Family Care, which provides coverage to low-income families on a sliding scale basis, regardless of immigration status; and Alliance Group Care, which is a subsidized health benefits package for in-home supportive services workers.

The Alliance was created to try to address disparities in access to health care for Alameda's 167,000 low-income, uninsured residents. Many of the uninsured immigrants in the county have in their household at least one undocumented immigrant who is not eligible for MediCal or other publicly funded coverage. The county also has about 7000 in-home workers who do not have access to employer based health coverage.

Alliance Family Care is financed primarily with private money, with additional grant money from the California tobacco settlement. Alliance Group Care is financed with modest premiums ($8 per month in 2003 and $5 co-pays), county social service funds, and federal and state matching funds.

The two programs cover nearly 10,000 people. Since their inception the county has had higher use of preventative services in the county, higher child immunization rates, and higher rates of screening for diabetes.

More information:

• Alameda Alliance for Health
• The Center for Health Care Strategies wrote an article about the Alameda Alliance for Health's effort against asthma in February, 2005.
• Community-Based Health Coverage Programs: Models and Lessons, from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
• Measuring the Return on a Community's Investment (ROIC) in Health Care Resulting from Providing Access to Affordable Health Coverage, by David Rogoff, July 2003, a publication of the Community Health Leadership Network.
• Community Benefits: The Need for Action, An Opportunity for Health Care Change. A Workbook for Grassroots Leaders and Community Organizations, a publication of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Access Project
• The Civic Renewal Project features writings on Health. Of particular interest is Health as a Civic Question, prepared for the American Civic Forum, November 1994.