The California Health Care Foundation is dedicated to advancing meaningful, measurable improvements in the way the health care delivery system provides care to the people of California, particularly those with low incomes and those whose needs are not well served by the status quo. We work to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. 

We are especially focused on strengthening Medi-Cal — the cornerstone of California’s safety net. We are also committed to finding better ways to meet the health care needs of the millions of people who remain uninsured in our state. And we are working to better integrate care for Californians who experience mental illness, drug or alcohol addiction, or other complex health conditions.

We organize our work around three main goals:

Improving Access to Coverage and Care

We advance statewide policies and practices that ensure all low-income Californians can get the care they need when they need it. We support efforts to expand access to affordable coverage and to strengthen the Medi-Cal program. We are also helping to foster delivery system transformation and workforce solutions that increase the capacity of safety-net organizations to provide timely, high-quality, and patient-centered care.

Promoting High-Value Care

We improve the health of low-income Californians by reducing their chances of receiving unwanted, ineffective, and unnecessary care. We focus on issues based on their broad population impact or high cost to the system as a whole. Currently, we are working to improve quality and cost in the following areas: care for people with complex needs, including mental illness and substance use disorder; maternity care; and care for people with serious illness or at the end of life.

Laying the Foundation

We invest in people, knowledge, and networks that help to make meaningful change possible in California’s health care system.

• Market Analysis and Insight: We provide research and analysis so decisionmakers have a market-wide view of California’s complex health care ecosystem.
• High-Quality Health Journalism: We support health journalism so that Californians have access to timely, relevant information about the most pressing health care issues.
• Building Leadership: We help to develop the leadership and skills of California’s health care professionals, state policy partners, and safety-net organizations to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
• Bridging the Innovation Gap: We support information, networks, and communications platforms that enable safety-net organizations and entrepreneurs to work together to improve the delivery system.

Our Approach

To achieve its mission and goals, CHCF needs to be able to influence how health care for low-income Californians is financed, regulated, and delivered. The assets we deploy to achieve these goals are money, time, expertise, and influence.

To leverage those assets for significant and measurable systems-level change, we use five key capabilities:

• Grantmaking: We fund initiatives in areas where health care improvement is needed most.
• Program-related investing: We invest in innovative companies to solve market problems in the safety net.
• Research: We create a data and policy analysis agenda that helps decisionmakers make informed choices.
• Engagement: We use our voice and relationships to address health care problems and find solutions.
• Convening: We bring stakeholders together to find solutions, spread knowledge, and create the impetus for change.

Fast Facts About CHCF

Purpose: Nonprofit independent philanthropy
Focus: Grantmaking to improve California’s health care system
Founded: 1996
Employees: ~50
Offices: Oakland and Sacramento
Assets: $769 million (3/31/2017)
Grants awarded: $27 million (fiscal year ended 3/31/2017)