BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2308
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
2308 (Roger Hernández)
As Amended May 31, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Higher |10-2 |Medina, Baker, Bloom, |Chávez, Linder |
|Education | |Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, | |
| | |Levine, Low, | |
| | |Santiago, Weber, | |
| | |Williams | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Education |6-0 |O'Donnell, Kim, | |
| | |McCarty, Santiago, | |
| | |Thurmond, Weber | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |14-6 |Gonzalez, Bloom, |Bigelow, Chang, |
| | |Bonilla, Bonta, |Gallagher, Jones, |
| | |Calderon, Daly, |Obernolte, Wagner |
| | |Eggman, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Roger | |
| | |Hernández, Holden, | |
| | |Quirk, Santiago, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
AB 2308
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SUMMARY: Establishes the California Health Care Coverage
Enrollment Assistance Act of 2016, and requires the California
State University (CSU) and the California Community Colleges
(CCC) to provide specified information regarding health care
coverage options to students. Specifically, this bill:
1)Extends, from January 1, 2019 to January 1, 2021, the sunset
date in 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 provide students contact
information about health care coverage options.
3)Authorizes CSU and CCC campuses to:
a) Developing an informational item or amending existing
enrollment forms or Web sites to provide uninsured students
information about health care coverage options.
b) Include a fact sheet with its enrollment forms
explaining basic information about affordable health care
coverage options for students.
4)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
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manner that would bring harm to the student.
5)Establishes a sunset date for the CSU and CCC requirements of
January 1, 2021.
6)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: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)K-12. The estimated state reimbursable cost of the original
legislation, as estimated by this committee, was $700,000 to
$1.1 million annually (General Fund (GF)-Prop 98) to
disseminate the required information to 6.2 million students
from 2015-16 through 2017-18. It is too early to know the
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actual costs, but this bill would extend these costs through
2020-2021.
2)CCC. Assuming similar costs to K-12 for providing the
required information to 2.3 million CCC students yields annual
state reimbursable costs of $250,000 to $400,000 (GF-Prop).
3)CSU. Annual General Fund costs to provide the information to
all students would be around $50,000.
COMMENTS: According to the author, the expansion of 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
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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.
Analysis Prepared by:
Laura Metune / HIGHER ED. / (916) 319-3960 FN:
0003141