California: Kaiser Permanente offering comprehensive healthcare coverage to *another* ~200K uninsured residents??

As I noted a month ago, as of January 1st, 2024, California extended Medicaid (Medi-Cal) eligibility to around 700,000 more undocumented residents:

On Jan. 1, immigrants may qualify for Medi-Cal regardless of legal status

...Milagro and her husband are among the more than 700,000 immigrants ages 26-49 expected to newly qualify for full health insurance come Jan. 1. That’s when California takes the final step in opening up Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for low-income residents, to everyone who meets eligibility requirements, regardless of their immigration status.

Because of this, I admit to scratching my head at first when I read this article from the Redwood City Pulse:

Kaiser Permanente is offering a program which provides affordable health care coverage to low-income adults and children, and applications for the program are due by Jan. 31, according to a press release from Kaiser. 

The program is accessible through various Kaiser facilities, including the Redwood City Kaiser.

Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Care Program is designed for individuals lacking access to other public or private health insurance forms. Qualified applicants receive comprehensive health coverage from Kaiser Permanente, including preventive services, without the burden of monthly premiums. According to a press release, most treatments at Kaiser facilities, such as the Redwood City Kaiser, do not require copays or additional out-of-pocket costs.

Wow. No premiums, no co-pays, no other out-of-pocket costs? So basically free for nearly all services?

“Even with the expansion of Medi-Cal to all low-income residents regardless of immigration status this year, there are still people who don’t have access to health care coverage,” said Yvette Radford, vice president of external and community Affairs, Kaiser Permanente Northern California.

It's towards the end of the article that the details are provided:

Eligibility for the program includes a total household income that falls between 138% to 300% of the federal poverty level. Applicants must not be eligible for other health coverage, such as Medi-Cal, Medicare, job-based health plans, or Covered California, and they must live in a Kaiser Permanente California service area, including areas near the Redwood City Kaiser.

So as far as I can tell, since any legal U.S. resident who doesn't have employer coverage, Medicare or Medicaid is eligible for ACA individual market (CoveredCA) coverage, that just leaves undocumented immigrants who earn too much to be eligible for Medicaid even with the new expansion of it to the sub-138% FPL population.

So how many undocumented residents in California are eligible for this program? Well, statewide, according to this, around 472,000 earned between 100 - 149% FPL in 2019; another 403,000 earned 150 - 199% FPL; and 1,177,000 earned more than 200% FPL.

I'm assuming that perhaps ~20% of the first population earn over 138% FPL, and perhaps ~30% of the last group earn between 200 - 300% FPL. If so, that would put the total potentially eligible for the KP program at around 447,000 plus the middle group of 403,000, for a total of roughly 850,000 people.

The next requirement is that they live in a KP service area, which includes Anaheim, Baldwin Park, Downey, San Bernardino County, Irvine, Kern County, Los Angeles, Moreno Valley, Panorama City, Antelope Valley, Riverside, San Diego, South Bay, West Los Angeles & Woodland Hills.

I'm not sure how many Californians live in these cities combined, but Los Angeles and San Diego are included, I'd imagine it's perhaps a quarter of the statewide population. Assuming the ~850K undocumented folks who earn between 138 - 300% FPL are roughly proportional, that would mean perhaps 210,000 more uninsured Californians who are now eligible for free/nearly free comprehensive healthcare coverage!

Applications can be submitted online at www.kp.org/chcp. The website features an easy-to-use application form, and for those needing assistance, there is a list of community agencies that can provide help. Kaiser Permanente Member Services is also available for support at 1-800-464-4000 (TTY 711).