BILL NUMBER: AB 13	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Laird

                        DECEMBER 4, 2006

   An act relating to health care coverage.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 13, as introduced, Laird. Health care coverage.
   Existing law establishes various public programs to provide health
care coverage to eligible children, including the Medi-Cal program
administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and
county welfare agencies, and the Healthy Families Program
administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board. Children
through 18 years of age are eligible for health care coverage under
these programs if they meet certain household income and other
requirements.
   This bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature
regarding health care coverage for children in California.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Health care coverage is a critical investment in the health of
California's children for the following reasons:
   (1) Children with health care coverage are more likely to get the
care they need, especially essential preventive care that can prevent
avoidable conditions and expensive emergency room visits.
   (2) Children with health care coverage are healthier and perform
better in school. California's investment in children's health care
coverage has been successful. For example, children enrolled in the
Healthy Families Program have shown a 63-percent improvement in
health and a 64-percent improvement in their ability to "pay
attention" and to "keep up with school activities."
   (b) California's investment in state health care coverage for
children has significantly reduced the number of children who have no
health care coverage.
   (c) With about 800,000 children in California without health care
coverage, the goal of extending coverage to all children in the state
is within reach, especially since a majority (58 percent) of them
already qualify for state health care coverage through the Medi-Cal
program or the Healthy Families Program.
   (d) California can no longer afford to waste precious resources by
dropping children from coverage unnecessarily due to bureaucratic
red tape, only to reenroll them at a later date. If this phenomenon
of children losing coverage temporarily were addressed, the number of
low-income children without health care coverage nationally would be
reduced by 40 percent.
   (e) Appropriate technological solutions can help improve program
administration and efficiency while reducing barriers to coverage for
children, making it easier for children to get and keep the health
care coverage they need.
   (f) With existing enrollment successes like the local Children's
Health Initiative, express lane eligibility through school lunch
programs, and Newborn Hospital Gateways, any reforms designed to
reach all children must build and improve upon the Medi-Cal program
and the Healthy Families Program, local enrollment and retention
innovations, and available technologies to enroll more children.
   (g) Across the state, over 27 coalitions of local health plans,
community leaders, health providers, businesses, unions, county
agencies, First 5 Commissions, faith leaders, schools, and others are
at work to expand access to health care coverage for children,
resulting in exceptional models for what is needed statewide.
   (h) California voters overwhelmingly support a plan that would
ensure that every child in California has health care coverage. Even
when voters understand the financial cost required to cover all
children, this support is solid throughout the state and across
partisan lines.
   (i) The Legislature aims to ensure that every child in California
can get health care coverage to grow up healthy and strong.