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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
For Media Assistance
A balanced approach needed to solve budget deficit not budget "smoke screens"
SACRAMENTO, California – On behalf of the 100% Campaign (The Children's Partnership, Children Now, and Children's Defense Fund) and PICO California, Wendy Lazarus, Founder of The Children's Partnership, issued the following statement regarding the Budget Conference Committee's vote to approve Semi-Annual Reporting for children with Medi-Cal coverage:
"This proposal is short-sighted and disappointing. If legislative leadership and the Governor accept this budget proposal, more than 250,000 kids will be forced off coverage and state administrative costs will increase. (The state Department of Health Care Services estimates that this proposal would result in 176,000 children losing their coverage by 2010) Even in tough budget times, such an impact on children makes no fiscal sense. We urge the Legislature and the Governor to reject this proposal that would hurt so many of California's most vulnerable children.
"A final budget that includes Semi-Annual Reporting would force California's poorest families to re-enroll their children into Medi-Cal every six months and could lead to a 35% increase in the number of uninsured children in California. By the sunset date of December 31, 2011, more than 250,000 children would lose coverage as parents will not be able to keep up with the additional bureaucratic red-tape. This would come at a time when our neediest families are already struggling with a slow economy and rising food and energy prices.
"Over a quarter of a million children losing coverage is too large a price to pay for the approximately $25 million savings the Senate has projected for this policy change (the Assembly has projected that similar proposals would result in no savings at all). Instead of spending money on health coverage, the state and counties will be spending money on processing additional paperwork and reenrolling those children unnecessarily dropped from coverage—reducing or eliminating the supposed savings. California already spends $40 million per year on unnecessarily re-enrolling eligible children who fall through the bureaucratic cracks. Other states, like Texas and Washington, have tried Semi-Annual Reporting and reversed their decision once they saw children's enrollment plummet and precious state resources wasted.
"As children's advocates, we will continue to fight to protect California's children and maintain their yearly enrollment in the Medi-Cal program. We appreciate the work of those stalwart children's health supporters in the Legislature that worked tirelessly to reject Semi-Annual Reporting. We will continue to urge the Legislature and the Governor to look beyond the numbers on paper, and consider the failures other states have experienced as a result of similar policies. There is no real cost-savings realized by such a proposal, but rather an added cost of pushing the number of uninsured children in California to over one million."
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.
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