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Sacramento Bee
November 16, 2005
By Clea Benson
Last year, advocates said they wanted to
make 2005 the year for ensuring that all California children
have health insurance.
Now they're hoping it will happen next year.
About 8 percent of the 10.5 million Californians
under 18-- nearly 900,000--don't have health coverage. About
half are eligible for existing public programs but aren't
enrolled.
Though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pledged
to expand coverage for children, in October he vetoed a bill
to expand enrollment in existing public health-insurance programs,
saying it was financially unworkable. Other bills have stalled
in the Legislature.
But with the special election over and a
renewed emphasis on bipartisan cooperation, advocates say
momentum is building on the issue, a popular one with voters,
according to polls.
A coalition of children's groups is preparing
to circulate petitions for an initiative to fund children's
insurance with an additional $1.50-per-pack tobacco tax. If
the measure qualifies, it could appear on the November ballot.
And lawmakers are dusting off their bills and preparing for
another round of debate.
"The momentum is clear,"
said Peter Long, senior program officer at the California
Endowment, a nonprofit foundation working to expand health
coverage. "After (the election), people came out and
were talking about children's coverage as one of the areas
where Democrats and Republicans agree."
The solutions could take many forms in addition
to the expanded use of public programs. One proposal, unveiled
Tuesday by the nonprofit New America Foundation, would require
parents to insure their children, with tough penalties for
noncompliance and tax credits for private coverage.
Assembly Bill 1670, written by Assemblyman
Keith Richman, R-Northridge, and Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San
Rafael, would provide tax credits to employers for private
coverage and implement tax penalties for parents who didn't
insure their children or themselves.
During the Schwarzenegger administration,
the number of children insured through Medi-Cal and by Healthy
Families, a public program for children of the working poor,
has increased by about 100,000. The Republican governor approved
an additional $162 million in this year's budget to cover
additional children and pay outreach workers to sign them
up.
Though there are also millions of adults
in California and the rest of the United States without health
insurance, policymakers have more readily embraced the idea
of providing government-funded health care for children. About
half of California's children are already insured through
Medi-Cal and Healthy Families.
At a panel on health insurance convened Tuesday
by the New American Foundation, the governor's secretary
of Health and Human Services, Kim Belshé, said Schwarzenegger
was committed to working next year on some form of health
insurance expansion for children. But she cautioned that
the solution would be dictated by financial concerns.
"There's no question we are still
grappling with some difficult budget decisions going forward,"
she said. "It is clear that more can and will be done
in 2006."
Belshé also suggested that lawmakers, rather than
acting themselves, might want to let voters decide if they
want to pass a tobacco tax to pay for more children's insurance.
The potential initiative being pushed by
child advocacy groups "calls into question the relevance
of seeking legislative solutions on this important issue in
2006," she said.
Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Alameda, author
of the bill the governor vetoed, AB 772, said she wants to
try to work things out legislatively.
"I'm willing to work with (the
governor)," said Chan, whose bill would cost the state
an additional $418 million, according to a study by the Lewin
Group. "All these proposals have costs...If he's willing
to work with us on the policy as well as on the costs, there's
no need for the initiative."
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