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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 7, 2007
For Media Assistance
Sacramento – Bringing health coverage to all children in California came one step closer this week as two companion bills, AB 1 (Laird & Dymally) and SB 32 (Steinberg) passed out of their houses of origin with decisive floor votes. AB 1 passed out of the Assembly with a vote of 46-24 while SB 32 passed out of the Senate by a vote of 25-13.
“We are pleased that our Legislature has acted upon the wishes of Californians to ensure every child has health insurance,” said Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President, The Children’s Partnership. “While it is important that these two bills move forward, it is just as crucial that the Legislature secure the funding needed to cover all children this year.”
AB 1 and SB 32 will finish the job of ensuring that all California children have access
to affordable, comprehensive health insurance so that they may grow up healthy and strong. The legislation would also ease the enrollment process for families and help children stay covered for as long as they are eligible.
Almost 93 percent of children in California are currently insured. Of the remaining 763,000 uninsured kids, more than half already qualify for existing programs, such as Healthy Families and Medi-Cal. AB 1 and SB 32 build on the success of Medi-Cal and Healthy Families to improve access to coverage by ensuring currently eligible children enroll and extending eligibility to children who do not currently qualify.
AB1 and SB 32 provide the blueprint for how to expand health coverage to all children
in California, but Legislators must take the important step to find funding to expand children’s coverage.
Deena Lahn, Policy Director for Children’s Defense Fund California, commented, “Recent polling shows that public support for covering all kids has never been higher. For years, a broad and diverse coalition of businesses, teachers, faith-leaders, health plans and others have been working to bring health coverage to every child in California. We are closer than we’ve ever been, but it will take the resolve of our Legislature to finish this work. Our children can’t afford to wait any longer; they need coverage this year.”
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The 100% Campaign, a collaborative
effort of Children Now, Children's Defense Fund and The
Children's Partnership, with primary funding from The
California Endowment, was created to ensure that all
of California's children obtain the health coverage they
need to grow up strong and healthy.
The PICO California Project is the united effort
of 20 California congregation-community organizations
affiliated with the PICO National Network. Collectively,
we represent 350 congregations and 400,000 families statewide
and are actively organizing in over 70 cities in Northern
and Southern California.
United Ways of California is a state association of local
United Ways and is a strong advocate of finding a statewide
solution to cover all kids in this state. United Ways
work closely with local community and business leaders,
legislators and others to promote this achievable and
important goal.
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