California to drop healthcare coverage for 670,000 kids

California board votes to drop healthcare coverage for 60,000 children

As a result of state budget cuts, the Healthy Families program will have to begin terminating coverage for more than 60,000 children on Oct. 1.

Nearly 670,000 children could be dropped by June 30.

By Patrick and McGreevy and Evan Halper
August 13, 2009 | 7:49 p.m.

Reporting from Sacramento - The announcement by state officials that California has enough cash to stop paying bills with IOUs did little to take the sting out of other budget news Thursday: Tens of thousands of poor children are about to lose their healthcare coverage.

A state board voted Thursday to begin terminating health insurance for more than 60,000 children Oct. 1 as a result of the budget amendments signed into law recently by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Those children would be up for an annual review of their coverage next month, but instead they may be dropped from the California Healthy Families program under the action by the state Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board.

The board is scrambling to secure funding from other sources, including money set aside by voters for early childhood education, but so far it has come up short. If additional funds are not found, board officials said, the program could ultimately drop 669,296 children in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010. Currently, 921,000 people age 18 and younger are enrolled in Healthy Families.

"There are not sufficient funds for the services we are providing," said Board Chairman Cliff Allenby. "We will work to do what we can do" to find additional money.

The budget cuts made by Schwarzenegger and the Legislature left the Healthy Families program with a $194-million shortfall.

On Thursday, the First 5 California Commission, which administers tobacco-tax funds that voters directed toward early childhood education, agreed to provide $81.4 million for Healthy Families. That is enough to cover 200,000 children through next June, but not enough to stop the vote to begin removing youngsters from the program.

Several advocates for children urged the board to put off a decision and find other ways to compensate for the budget shortfall.

"Families are extremely confused and frightened about what is going to happen to their kids," said Suzie Shupe, executive director of California Children's Health Initiatives.

Clifford Sarkin, a senior policy associate with the Children's Defense Fund California, called the board's vote "devastating. . . . During these economic times, these families rely on the Healthy Families program more than ever."

Meanwhile, a coalition of advocates for the disabled announced Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Schwarzenegger to force the restoration of millions of dollars he cut with line-item vetoes from programs that help the sick and disabled. A similar suit was filed this week by Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

Despite the money cut from the current budget, California will need to borrow $10.5 billion this year, according to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Controller John Chiang. The borrowing would allow the state to pay all of its bills between late summer and next spring, a period when state accounts typically run short. The loan would be repaid when the usual flood of tax receipts arrives after April 15.

If approved by a state financial board later this month, the borrowing would allow California to stop issuing IOUS and begin paying existing ones by Sept. 4. Lockyer said a loan would "rid us of the financial hardship and stigma caused by IOUs."

The state controller's office began issuing the notes July 2, when its projections showed the state would not have enough cash to pay all of its bills. The warrants went to vendors, local governments, students on financial aid, some welfare recipients and taxpayers who were due refunds. The state has issued 327,000 IOUs totaling $1.95 billion.

Officials had initially planned to wait until October to begin redeeming the IOUs, but better cash projections than expected will allow that to start sooner.

Chiang said Thursday that the issuance of IOUS, for only the second time since the Great Depression, has been a "difficult, and frankly, shameful chapter in the state's history."

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

evan.halper@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 0131.story

Listen to the ronald Reagan speech I posted. This plays right out of the playbook - hit on the to the 'moral" responsibility to take care of children.

They need that health care bill to bail them out!!!!!

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"Families are extremely confused and frightened about what is going to happen to their kids," said Suzie Shupe, executive director of California Children's Health Initiatives.

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Illegals are the reason our health care system is in trouble. It is high time that we stop the anchor baby problem and send them all packing. But you know they just want america for the freebies. They really don't want to stay here unless they can make it their own lawless land.


Home > News > Chicagoland
Illegal immigrants face life-and-death decisions without health insurance
Trying to pay for organ transplants and follow-up medicine can be overwhelming

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Immigrant health care

Liliana Cruz, 16, receives dialysis this month. An adult sister is willing to donate a kidney to her, but a hospital declined them because the sister's part of the surgery would not be subsidized. (Tribune photo by Alex Garcia / August 4, 2009)

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By Antonio Olivo Tribune reporter

August 11, 2009

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As he pushes his cart around the Southwest Side selling steamed ears of corn, sliced cucumbers and other street food, Omar Castillo embodies a potential life-and-death issue that has become the third rail in the debate over health-care reform.

Peddling snacks -- doused with lime and chili powder and priced at $1.50 each -- is how Castillo, 19, is trying to pay for expensive medication he needs to stay healthy after receiving a kidney transplant last year.

Because he is in the U.S. illegally, he has no ready access to aid for such long-term medical expenses. To cover such needs for an estimated 6.8 million undocumented and uninsured immigrants in the country, some health-care advocates have proposed broadening the health-care proposals before Congress. But fierce opposition has kept the idea off the table.

As it is, Castillo received his transplant and a year of free medicine only as part of a hospital study at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, after a Latino activist campaign and a call from the governor's office got him included. With the study over, his last free prescription is running out, and with it, his chances for a healthy life.

"We don't know what we'll do when the medicine is gone," said Castillo, holding two nearly empty bottles of pills he takes to ward off an organ rejection.

Immigration activists say it is "immoral" for hospitals and doctors, as well as a nation, to deny health care to the seriously ill, no matter their legal status. But proponents of tougher Immigration enforcement -- and others fighting to contain runaway health-care costs -- fear that providing such services would only encourage more undocumented immigrants to cross the border.

Given spotty health care in countries such as China or Mexico, "Health insurance alone might be worth people coming here ... especially if you've got a family that's got a lot of illness in it," argued Roy Beck, director of Numbers USA, which has pushed for tighter restrictions on medical aid to non-citizens.

The issue has become so sensitive that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emphasized that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the current proposals. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, denying a report that it would push for coverage of the undocumented, issued a statement prescribing coverage only for "legal, law-abiding" immigrants who pay their "fair share" for health care.

Under current federal laws, illegal immigrants are entitled to receive only emergency health care, though Illinois and some other states offer assistance to cover uninsured children. In Cook County, some immigrants might access a "limit of liability" program providing temporary financial aid to low-income uninsured patients.

Some undocumented patients have resorted to using stolen Social Security numbers bought on the black market to qualify for health programs -- a form of medical identity theft increasingly on hospital radars.

Many more scramble to pay for their medicine and doctors visits in cash, a mounting challenge in an economy where even day-laborer work has dried up.

"A lot of people are living with things that are easily treatable [and] that those of us with good health insurance just don't have to live with because we can go get the medication," said Jennifer Tolbert, a policy analyst at the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation, which has studied health-care disparities among immigrants.

To some extent, "if those individuals have communicable diseases ... there may be a risk [of] spreading that condition," Tolbert said.

Hospitals nationwide have grappled with how to deal with indigent patients without legal status. In Chicago and elsewhere, some private facilities have arranged to have undocumented patients flown back to their own country, a practice that resulted in a landmark lawsuit in Florida last year on behalf of a Guatemalan man who suffered severe brain injuries from a car crash.

Last month, a Florida jury found that the hospital was within its rights to have Luis Alberto Jimenez repatriated.

The health care situation leaves Castillo pushing his cart through the streets of Gage Park, trying to raise enough money to refill prescriptions for mycophenolate mofetil and tacrolimus -- immunosuppressants that ward off an organ rejection and, together, can cost as much as $750 per month.

"Helotes! Raspadas!" Castillo's voice echoes, hawking the corn and flavored ice shavings, while a cousin repeatedly squeezes a bicycle horn to draw residents from their brick bungalows. Other street vendors compete nearby, keeping an eye out for city inspectors while boasting about their flavorful snacks.

After about six hours in the hot sun on a recent day, Castillo and his family took home $20, which also goes toward food and other needs.

Castillo arrived illegally from Mexico City in 2005 and worked in construction for about six months before he began growing weak and having trouble breathing, family said. A doctor later discovered that Castillo was born with a partially developed kidney.

Compared with others who are uninsured and facing chronic illness, Castillo has been lucky. Last summer, the UIC Medical Center assumed the cost of his kidney transplant after a group of Latino activists rallied outside the hospital and persuaded former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to pressure UIC on Castillo's behalf. Threatened months later with impeachment, Blagojevich cited Castillo's case as one reason he should remain in office.

California to drop healthcare coverage for 670,000 kids

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-166979.html

because

L.A. County welfare for kids of illegal aliens tops $48 million in June

Source: Office of Supervisor Michael D. Antonivich
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Fifth District
Posted: Aug. 11, 2009 3:37 p.m.
POSTED Aug. 11, 2009 5:20 p.m.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY - Figures from the Department of Public Social Services show that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected nearly $22 million in welfare and over $26 million in food stamps in June, according to county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/16666/

Notice that the numbers of illegals are understated by the politicians

The fact that illegals are getting very expensive healthcare that many American Citizens can't afford is repugnant.

Paige, what is the link to this artcle?

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Originally Posted by Newmexican

Notice that the numbers of illegals are understated by the politicians

The fact that illegals are getting very expensive healthcare that many American Citizens can't afford is repugnant.

Paige, what is the link to this artcle?

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When you don't have the link just GOOGLE the headline and you get this:

Illegal immigrants face life-and-death decisions without health ...Aug 11, 2009 ... I have no health insurance, I cannot afford health insurance and I .... They do not have the right to social security, unemployment et.al. ...

www.chicagotribune.com/.../chi-immigran ... -all.story

Thanks John Doe. I didn't know you could do that.

Quote:

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''Life's tough......it's even tougher if you're stupid.''

-- John Wayne

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L O L

"Currently, 921,000 people age 18 and younger are enrolled in Healthy Families".

And how many adutls are cover as part of the "Family"?

And the taxpayers are paying to cover ALL of them.

August 13, 2009

Despite First 5 funds, Healthy Families expected to roll back coverage

Children's health care advocates got both a boost and a blow today, as the California First 5 Commission announced it would contribute $81.4 million to the state's Healthy Families health insurance program.

But members of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which runs Healthy Families, still had to tell the program's administrators to begin disenrolling children Oct. 1 to help close a funding shortfall.

"It was a day of very good news and very bad news for kids," said Wendy Lazarus, founder of Children's Partnership, a nonprofit child advocacy organization. "I think the First 5 contribution shows tremendous leadership."

"(But) this is a really dark, grim situation for kids in California," Lazarus said. "I don't think anyone living here ever thought we would see a day where kids with very low income can't get heath care."

The 12-year-old program provides low-cost insurance to about 900,000 children and teens in low-income families that aren't poor enough to qualify for Medi-Cal. Adults in many of the families are working, but their jobs don't provide health coverage or don't cover dependents.

The Legislature reduced the Healthy Families budget by $128.6 million in its budget revision last month, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto to cut $50 million more.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, who along with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass requested the First 5 funds last week, said in a statement that he hoped "this action will motivate others to step up to the plate."

Even with the First 5 contribution, unless additional funding is obtained, children whose one-year anniversary in the program falls in September will be dropped from coverage starting Oct. 1, said MRMIB Deputy Director for Health Policy Legislation Ginny Puddefoot. Puddefoot said the program would give families subject to disenrollment 30 days' written notice.

"This is a terrible thing and we really recognize the difficulty for children and families at this time, and we are hopeful that we will find a way to avoid having to disenroll children from the program," Puddefoot said. "We're all working really hard, the Legislature, the governor's office, advocates. Everyone is working really hard to try to find additional funding so that we would not have to actually move forward with that step."

Initial estimates projected that more than 600,000 children would be affected by the disenrollments, but Puddefoot said those figures did not account for the First 5 funding, which is expected to prevent about 200,000 children up to age 5 from losing or being denied coverage. Funding shortages forced the program to freeze new enrollments for the first time in mid-July. More than 55,000 children had been added to a waiting list for new applicants as of Tuesday, Puddefoot said.

First 5 Executive Director Kris Perry said she hopes the group's contribution would open the door to more funding opportunities to preserve health care access for children.

"The $81.4 million is the first step towards solving that budget shortfall. We know they are looking for additional cost savings as well as added revenue to fill the rest of the gap. We hope our contribution can stall additional wait listing or disenrolling of children as soon as possible," Perry said.

The board is still considering various other options for restructuring the program and saving costs without disenrolling children. Those options, some of which could require approval from the legislature, will be discussed at an emergency meeting scheduled for next Thursday.

Lazarus remained optimistic that alternative steps could be taken to avoid disenrolling children from the program.

"There is still time. Those disenrollment actions will not actually kick a kid off coverage until Oct 1, so we're pulling with everybody to use the next 45 days to find the rest of the money and to join with First 5 to keep kids taken care of properly," she said.

Categories: Health care, State budget

Posted by Torey Van Oot

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/ca ... ol%20Alert