Bleak House: For one
family, budget cuts could
mean the end of Healthy
Kids

By Bruce Newman
bnewman@mercurynews.com

When Gov. Jerry Brown disclosed that the state had
discovered $6.6 billion in unexpected tax revenue,
its effect on the budget crisis was to shift the debate
to a conversation most Californians can probably
relate to: Hey, we're a little short.

For the state, Brown is like the forgetful uncle who
discovers loose change in the cushions of his
couch, which means he can finally repay part of the
$16.2 billion he owed you in early May.

The deficit now is less than $10 billion, which still
sounds like a lot. But San Jose's Blanca and Juan
Garcia, who struggle to hold body and soul
together on his salary as a striper -- "painting the
lines on parking lots," he says of the job that has
supported their family for 15 years -- know what it's
like to be a little short.

"Our income isn't very high, but it also isn't very
low," says Blanca.

Juan makes $50,000 a year, but says his boss
recently told everyone on his crew they had to take a
salary cut or risk being laid off. He is no longer
among the 32 percent of workers in Santa Clara
County who earn $15 an hour or less, but the
Garcias are economic 'tweens in one of the most
affluent places on the planet.

They rely on a program that the state wants to
plunder to put a Band-Aid on its budget problems.
But like many immigrants who lack full legal
standing, their use of public money to care for their
daughters' chronic health conditions makes the
Garcias and the programs that support them easy
targets.

That is the subject of this latest chapter in "Bleak
House," our ongoing look at how the state budget
affects all of us.

For some Sacramento lawmakers, the immigration
status of families like the Garcias is part of the u
nderlying cause of the state's fiscal problems. If
the financial spigot were closed on social services
for immigrants here illegally, they say, California
would once again be solvent.

Of course, it's not that simple. Costly as social
welfare programs are, the alternative -- routine
visits to the emergency room, chronic health
problems that could have been prevented -- are
even costlier.

Resident status

Juan and Blanca are not yet citizens. But they pay
taxes, have Social Security numbers and say they are
less than a year from gaining resident status after
moving to San Jose from Mexico under the
sponsorship of Blanca's father, who was a citizen.

Blanca has been a stay-at-home mom to the couple's
three girls -- Gladys, 16, Yuleiba, 13, and Leslie, 9
-- since she and her husband moved to this country
16 years ago.

In San Jose, even when his boss here agreed to split
the cost of health insurance, Garcia says he couldn't
afford the $250 a month premium. The only way the
Garcia family is able to afford health insurance for
their girls is through Healthy Kids, an $8 million-a-
year program that receives funding from the city, the
county and First 5, a voter-approved commission
that uses tobacco tax money to invest in early
childhood development programs. And now the
state is attempting to lay claim to $1 billion of First
5's money, and as a result Healthy Kids could be
wiped out.

"Without First 5's funding, the whole program falls
apart," Kathleen King, executive director of Santa
Clara Family Health Foundation, says of the program
that covers 7,500 children.

The social safety net is actually more of a patchwork
quilt of agencies such as First 5 and the Family
Health Foundation that stitch together grants,
donations and public funds to keep people -- many
who would be considered middle-income
elsewhere, like the Garcias -- from sliding into the
abyss of poverty.

"In our county, that includes a lot of folks we've
never had as clients before," says Jolene Smith, e
xecutive director of First 5 of Santa Clara County.
"Men and women who used to be car salesmen,
insurance brokers, and a whole different population
of families are taking advantage of Healthy Kids for
their children because of the economy."

Gladys suffers from allergic reactions to insect bites
and had surgery last year for a hernia. Yuleiba is
being treated for eczema, and Leslie takes
medication for asthma that she has had since birth.
All three see specialists. The family pays income-
based premiums, but the medicine Leslie gets for a
$10 co-pay would normally cost more than $100.

'Saved our lives'

"If we didn't have Healthy Kids, we would have had
to go to the emergency room, and I have no idea
how we would pay for that," Blanca says through a
translator. "Healthy Kids has saved our lives."

Many undocumented families never enroll their
children in health care programs because they fear
being deported. "Germs don't look at your status,"
says King. "Germs don't say, 'I'm only going to the
people who have documentation.'"

Juan believes that the defunding of social welfare
programs has already begun a reverse migration to
Mexico, affirming the desires of the Legislature's
more conservative caucus. But for the Garcias, there
is no going back. "Impossible," Blanca says. "My
girls have chronic conditions, and there aren't
resources to go to the doctor in Mexico. Our life is
here."

Contact Bruce Newman at 408-920-5004.

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