BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2308
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
AB 2308
(Roger Hernández) - As Amended April 13, 2016
[This bill was referred to the Higher Education Committee and
was heard by that committee as it relates to issues under its
jurisdiction.]
SUBJECT: Health care coverage: enrollment assistance
SUMMARY: Removes the January 1, 2019 sunset date from existing
law that requires public schools to provide parents or legal
guardians with information regarding health care coverage
options and assistance, and establishes the California Health
Care Coverage Enrollment Assistance Act of 2016. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Removes the January 1, 2019 sunset date from existing law that
requires public schools to provide parents or legal guardians
with information regarding health care coverage options and
assistance.
2)Requires, commencing with the 2017-18 academic year, each
campus of the CSU and CCC to identify uninsured students and
offer these students contact information for local entities to
provide health care enrollment assistance and information
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about health care coverage options.
3)Authorizes CSU and CCC campuses to identify uninsured students
through any of the following:
a) Adding health insurance screening questions and contact
information for local health care enrollment assistance
entities to its enrollment forms;
b) Developing a screening method to identify uninsured
students and offer these students contact information for
local health care enrollment entities; and,
c) Partnering with local organizations to ensure students
who are identified as uninsured by the campus receive
health care enrollment assistance.
4)Authorizes CSU and CCC campuses to provide uninsured students
information about health care coverage options through either
of the following:
a) Using a template developed, as required, by the State
Department of Education (SDE) that is made available on the
SDE website by August 1, 2017, and upon request provided to
the CSU and CCC campuses; or,
b) Developing an informational item or amending existing
enrollment forms or websites to provide uninsured students
information about health care coverage options.
5)Authorizes a CSU or CCC campus to include a factsheet with its
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enrollment forms explaining basic information about affordable
health care coverage options for students.
6)Prohibits a CSU or CCC campus from discriminating against a
student who does not have health care coverage or use any
information related to a student's health care coverage in any
manner that would bring harm to the student.
7)Provides for reimbursement to local agencies and school
districts for implementation costs, should the Commission on
State Mandates determine state mandated local costs are
incurred by this bill.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange, known as
Covered California, as an independent state entity to serve as
the marketplace for Californians to purchase health care
coverage and as a way to meet the personal responsibility
requirements of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (ACA).
2)Requires school districts to add to enrollment forms, for the
2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18 school years, information about
health care coverage options and enrollment assistance.
FISCAL EFFECT: State-mandated local program
COMMENTS:
Purpose of this bill. According to the author, the expansion of
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health care coverage options under the ACA generated
approximately seven million newly eligible Californians as of
January 1, 2014. Of those nearly 67% qualify for Medi-Cal.
There is great opportunity to enroll the eligible; however,
notable barriers exist for populations to enroll in health care
coverage including lack of awareness about the programs,
difficult application or re-enrollment processes, and stigmas
associated with enrolling into low-income health insurance and
other public programs. While the ACA has dramatically reduced
the number of uninsured Californians, a significant number of
the population has been left behind in the absence of proactive
and practical solutions.
AB 2706 (Hernandez), Chapter 827, Statutes of 2014, requires the
provision of health care coverage information to K-12 children
and their families at the time of school enrollment. According
to the author, it is a successful part of health care outreach
using schools as a trusted messenger for helpful information
about children's health and wellbeing.
This bill would create a similar model for CCC and CSU campuses.
According to the author, by capitalizing on local partnerships
between CCC, CSU and local community resources, this bill will
help thousands of eligible families and individuals enroll into
health coverage. The author notes that research shows that
California students who newly enroll in a health coverage
program experience a nearly 63% improvement in performance and
are therefore better prepared to succeed in a learning
environment.
K-12 Impact. This bill removes the sunset date for the
requirement in existing law that school districts add health
care information to K-12 district enrollment forms. That
requirement was enacted by AB 2706 (Roger Hernández), Chapter
827, Statutes of 2014. The purpose of that requirement is to
help inform families of health insurance options available to
them under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care
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Act (ADA) and the California Health Benefit Exchange. The
Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis estimated a
state-reimbursable mandated cost of between $700,000 and $1.1
million. It is still too early to know what the actual costs
are.
Sunset date repeal. Generally, the Legislature prefers to
extend sunset dates rather than repeal them. This ensures that
the Legislature periodically reviews state policy to determine
whether it should be continued, repealed, or modified. In this
case, the requirement to provide families with information was
predicated in large part on the fact that the ADA and the
California Health Benefit Exchange were new and unknown to many
families. As time goes on, families will become more familiar
with the system and their options. In fact, nearly all families
will already be enrolled in an insurance program before their
children are enrolled in school. Accordingly, the need for this
mandate may substantially decline or even be eliminated over
time. Having a sunset date ensures the Legislature will
reassess the need.
In addition, a report issued by Covered California last October
shows that awareness of the ACA among Californian's grew to 90%
in 2015. The report is based on a survey to measure the
public's knowledge of Covered California. Most survey
respondents reported receiving information from either someone
knowledgeable about Covered California (56%), the Covered
California website (58%), or both (the percentages add up to
more than 100%, because respondents could identify more than one
source).
For these reasons, staff recommends that, instead of repealing
the K-12 sunset, the bill be amended to extend the sunset date
to January 1, 2024 (a five year extension).
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
AFL-CIO
California Teachers Association
Opposition
None received
Analysis Prepared by:Rick Pratt / ED. / (916) 319-2087
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