FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
For Media Assistance

Assembly Budget Subcommittee Protects the Health Coverage of Nearly Half a Million Children

SACRAMENTO, California — Yesterday, the Assembly Budget Subcommittee rejected Governor Schwarzenegger's 2008-09 budget proposal to add more red tape for families enrolled in Medi-Cal. The Governor's proposed Quarterly Status Reports (QSRs) would require families to renew their Medi-Cal eligibility every three months, instead of once every year. Last night's vote is a huge victory for California's children and families, as this proposal could cause 471,500 children to eventually lose their Medi-Cal health coverage.

"By burying families in paperwork, the proposed QSRs are merely a backdoor way of saving money by reducing the number of children covered by Medi-Cal," said Cathy Maupin, Executive Director of Children's Defense Fund-CA. "This proposal, if enacted, would be a huge step backwards from the shared goal of covering all California's children and it will significantly increase the state's administrative costs due to processing more paperwork. All around, QSRs would be a fiscally wasteful policy at a time when we need to be most efficient with limited state resources."

The state estimates that 471,500 children will not be able to keep up with the paperwork and will be dropped from coverage. Such a loss in coverage would increase the total number of uninsured children in California by more than 60 percent. Multiple studies and research show that the vast majority of these children losing coverage would otherwise remain eligible for Medi-Cal.

In addition to children losing coverage, QSRs will merely compound the state's current fiscal crisis and waste taxpayers' dollars since many of these children are, in fact, eligible and will come back into the program. Statistics show that half to two-thirds of the children who are dropped from coverage eventually re-enroll in Medi-Cal. California already spends about $40 million a year re-enrolling children who are unnecessarily dropped from Medi-Cal.

"Not only has Medi-Cal kept my children healthy through preventive care, but last year, when my five-year-old daughter became seriously ill with a kidney infection, I didn't hesitate to seek medical attention as soon as I knew something was wrong," stated Anjie Reynolds, mother of two children enrolled in Medi-Cal. "Thanks to Medi-Cal, I do not have to choose between putting food on the table and paying for health care."

"QSRs are simply bad policy. They cause children to go without the health care they need and they waste taxpayer dollars. During this economic downturn, we should be helping our most vulnerable populations—children and families—weather this storm not turn our backs on them," continued Maupin.

We are grateful that the Assembly Budget Subcommittee has rejected this unwise proposal. We now urge the Senate to do the same and protect the health of nearly half a million California children.

The 100% Campaign, a collaborative effort of Children Now, Children's Defense Fund and The Children's Partnership, 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.