The Hillsborough County Health Care Plan (Plan) was created by the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) in 1991 to ensure a stable source of funding for the delivery of health care to low-income uninsured residents of Hillsborough County. Funding for the Plan is obtained from a locally levied one-half cent sales tax, which is deposited into a Health Care Trust Fund used solely for this purpose. Policy for the use of these funds is established by the BOCC with the advice of a community-based Health Care Advisory Board (HCAB). Additionally, the Health & Social Services (HSS) Division of the County’s Department of Family and Aging Services is responsible to the BOCC for administering the Plan.

Currently, the Plan is comprised of four service components: Managed Health Care Program; Medicaid Match; Level I Trauma Center Payment; and Health Care Responsibility Act. The components are of vital importance to the health of low income, uninsured residents of the county.

The Managed Health Care Program, otherwise known as the HCHCP, is the best known component of the Plan. The HCHCP has had a significant impact on the way that indigent health care is delivered in Hillsborough County. By providing an incentive for providers to serve this population, the Plan has resulted in a community-based primary care delivery system that directs indigents away from higher cost hospital-based settings for care, thus reducing the rate of growth in projected health care expenditures. The HCHCP has received national recognition and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and Ford Foundation “Innovations in American Government” and Rutgers University and Coopers & Lybrand “Excellence in State and Local Government” awards. In addition, the program has been acknowledged as a model by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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