Campaign Update
Thursday, June 12, 2008

Budget Conference Committee to Convene:
California’s Children’s Health At Stake

UPDATE ON BUDGET ACTION: Both the Senate and Assembly have made their initial decisions on the 2008-09 state budget. Now, significant unresolved items will be taken up by the Budget Conference Committee, a bi-partisan group of six legislators that is expected to begin meeting this Thursday, June 12. The Conference Committee will resolve any and all differences between the Senate and Assembly's versions of the budget and send a final budget to the Governor for his signature.

The critical item for children's health that the Conference Committee will debate is a proposal to increase the number of times children must re-enroll for Medi-Cal coverage. Governor Schwarzenegger proposed to help fill the state's budget deficit by requiring families to renew their Medi-Cal health coverage every 3 months, rather than the current annual renewal. The Administration itself estimates that these Quarterly Status Reports (QSRs) would – by dramatically increasing red tape for families – lead to 471,500 California children losing their health insurance.

The Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health rejected the QSR proposal earlier this spring. However, the Senate Budget Committee recently approved a so-called "compromise" known as Semi-Annual Reporting, which would require families to renew Medi-Cal eligibility every 6 months. This proposal is actually just as harmful as QSRs; the same number of children would lose coverage, it would just take a bit longer to reach that astounding total. After years of progress on children's coverage, California would take a giant step in the wrong direction if Semi-Annual Reporting were approved.

Now that the Semi-Annual Reporting proposal is up for debate by the Budget Conference Committee, it is imperative that our legislators hear from us. They must reject the Semi-Annual Reporting proposal. The health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of children is at stake. Please call the following members of the Budget Conference Committee TODAY:

* If you live in any of these members' districts, make sure to reach out to her/his district office.

Tell these elected officials that they must not balance the budget on the backs of our children. Let them know that:

• California has made tremendous progress over the past decade to cover California's uninsured children. Conferees would undo that progress if they support Semi-Annual Reporting. This single cut alone would increase the number of uninsured children in the state by 60%!
• Contrary to what may have been intended, Semi-Annual Reporting is not half as bad as Quarterly Reporting. Semi-Annual Reporting would still cause nearly half a million children to lose their health coverage over time, just at a slower rate than QSRs.
• While other states are making strides to cover more children, California is considering moving backwards by implementing barriers to children's coverage such as Semi-Annual Reporting. Our children and our state deserve better.
• Both Semi-Annual Reporting and Quarterly Status Reporting are, in effect, eligibility cuts—they would cut budget costs by purposefully creating barriers to coverage for eligible children.
• The budget situation is bleak for the state and its policymakers; however, at the same time, low-income working families are struggling with hardships of their own in this economic downturn. Now is absolutely the wrong time to cut off these families' health coverage for their children.
• When children don't have health insurance, the state sees increased medical costs due to emergency room visits. Furthermore, the health care system as a whole will foot the bill for increases in uncompensated care; this affects us all.

You can also send this sample letter to the above listed Budget Conferees.

GET INVOLVED AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! In addition to calling the Budget Conferees, you are invited to join the Community Health Councils' Coalitions (Covering Kids & Families Statewide Coalition and Los Angeles Access to Health Coverage Coalition) for a legislative day at the Capitol TODAY, June 12th, to educate the Governor and Legislature about the harmful impacts of these cuts. For questions about the event, please contact catherine@chc-inc.org.

STAY TUNED: We will keep you up-to-date. The Budget Conference Committee will make decisions that will impact the state for years to come. 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