Campaign Update
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Governor’s May Revise: An Irresponsible Proposal
A Budget That Forces More Than 500,000 California Children Off Health Coverage is Unconscionable and Should be a Non-Starter

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger issued his "May Revise" budget proposal for fiscal year 2008-09. Facing an estimated $17 billion deficit for the coming year, the Governor has chosen not to propose a balanced solution to the crisis, but has rather put forth a plan that severely hurts the health and welfare of California's children. In short, this proposal is irresponsible and unacceptable.

Click here to see our press release on yesterday's events

Far from requiring "everyone [to] tighten their belts," nothing about this budget plan is balanced. The Governor's continued opposition to increased taxes will directly affect more than half a million children and their health. Under this proposal, working families with the lowest incomes – Californians who are already struggling in the current economic downturn – are told to put their children's health and health care on the line to balance the state budget deficit.

BUDGET PROPOSALS AFFECTING CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE

Almost 500,000 Children Will Lose Health Coverage as a Result of Added Red Tape. The Governor's plan still includes the Quarterly Status Reporting requirement which will force 472,000 children to be unnecessarily dropped from coverage, even though they still qualify. It also wastes taxpayer dollars by requiring significantly more paperwork and bureaucracy.

Increased Healthy Families Premiums and Co-Payments Will Lead to Fewer Families Able to Afford Their Children's Coverage. Already struggling during this economic downturn, working families will face premium increases of 78% for some children in the Healthy Families program and a 50% increase in co-payments for non-preventive services. For many, health insurance will simply become unaffordable. An estimated 60,000-70,000 children will lose their Healthy Families coverage as a result.

In addition to continuing to advance these severe cuts to children's health, the Governor has now proposed to reduce health insurance for even more children and families:

• Elimination of Medi-Cal Coverage for Many Poor Families. Income eligibility for poor families (under the "1931b" program) would be reduced from 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL) to 61% FPL ($10,736 a year for a family of 3). Also, eligibility would be restricted whereby the principal wage earner can work no more than 100 hours a month. Over time, 429,000 poor parents would lose coverage. This would amount to $31.2 million in 2008-09 and $342.5 million in 2011-12 in lost health coverage. Children would – ostensibly – still qualify under poverty-related Medi-Cal coverage.

• Elimination of Full-Scope Medi-Cal Benefits for Legal Immigrants. About 81,000 legal immigrant children and other legal immigrants including those permanently residing under the color of law (PRUCOL) would lose their current access to preventive and comprehensive care and have only limited scope benefits such as emergency services, pregnancy-related services, long-term nursing home care, and breast and cervical cancer treatment. This would amount to $86.7 million in lost benefits in 2008-09.

• Limiting Eligibility for Emergency Medi-Cal Services Month-to-Month. Undocumented immigrant children and other undocumented immigrants currently eligible for emergency services benefits would become, in essence, only eligible for one month of care. The monthly re-application requirement would not apply to those receiving pregnancy-related services. This would amount to $42 million in lost health care benefits in 2008-09.

• Delayed Implementation of Enrollment Efficiencies and Simplifications (SB 437). When implemented, SB 437 (Escutia, 2006) will significantly streamline enrollment and renewal processes for children's health insurance, resulting in an additional 94,000 uninsured but eligible children getting coverage. A modest $13.0 million investment to start these efficiencies will be delayed for another 2 years.

These health cuts are in addition to those proposed in the January budget, all of which remain as part of this proposal:

• Healthy Families Dental Benefit Cap of $1,000 annually, which is estimated to affect 45,000 children enrolled in the program.

• County Administrative Cuts of 10%, which would translate into 1,051 fewer county eligibility workers to process applications and resolve cases, and would lead to delayed coverage for children and families.

• Provider and Plan Rate Cuts in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families which would result in fewer services offered to covered children.

• No Funding for Children's Health County Outreach Grants, which in the past have been highly successful in identifying and enrolling eligible children.

This Budget is Irresponsible and Unacceptable! Let the Governor and the Legislature know that over half a million children should not pay for the budget deficit with their health. They need to hear from all of us loud and clear or these shameful proposals will become a reality.

WE NEED YOU TO SPEAK OUT!! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD: To communicate with policymakers about the Quarterly Status Reporting proposal and other budget proposals that would have serious impacts on children's health, contact the State Assembly and Senate Budget Committees, Legislative leadership, and your Legislators. Take three minutes NOW to personalize and send this sample letter to your Legislators. For more information about budget proposals that would jeopardize children's health, please see our budget factsheets.

NOW is the time to act. STAY TUNED; we will keep you up-to-date as the Legislature debates the budget.

For more information, please contact Tim Morrison at tmorrison@childrennow.org or 510-763-2444 x122.

The 100% Campaign, a collaborative effort of The Children's Partnership, Children Now and Children's Defense Fund, was created to ensure that all of California's children obtain the health insurance they need to grow up strong and healthy.
www.100percentcampaign.org

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.
www.picocalifornia.org