BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 2308
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|Author: |Roger Hernández |
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|Version: |May 31, 2016 Hearing |
| |Date: June 22, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Lenin DelCastillo |
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Subject: Health care coverage: information to students
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California State University (CSU) and the
California Community Colleges (CCC's) to provide students with
information about health care coverage options. This bill also
extends the sunset date by two years to January 1, 2021, for
K-12 school districts to provide parents with this information
on school enrollment forms.
BACKGROUND
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.
2) Authorizes school districts and county offices of education
to incorporate into the School Lunch Program application
packet or notification of eligibility that the student may
qualify for free or reduced-cost health coverage under the
California Health Benefit Exchange. (Education Code §
49557.2)
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ANALYSIS
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, as
specified.
2) Establishes the California Health Care Coverage Act of
2016.
3) 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. To satisfy
this requirement, authorizes CSU and CCC campuses to:
a) Develop an informational item or amend an
existing enrollment form or Internet Web site to
provide students information about health care
coverage options. Provides that a campus may use
information provided in the standard template
developed by the California Department of Education,
as specified.
b) Include a fact sheet with its enrollment forms
explaining basic information about affordable health
care coverage options for students.
4) Prohibits a California State University (CSU) or
California Community College (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 or interest in learning about health
care coverage in any manner that would bring harm to the
student.
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5) Establishes a sunset date for the CSU and CCC
requirements of January 1, 2021.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill. According to the author's office, "the
federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)
expanded health care coverage options and made
approximately seven million Californians newly eligible for
coverage 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 Affordable Care Act 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."
By utilizing schools and universities, this bill is
intended to provide essential information and educate
students and families about eligibility and available
health coverage programs.
2) Related efforts. AB 2706 (Hernandez, Chapter 827, Statutes
of 2014) was enacted to require K-12 school districts and
charter schools to provide health care coverage information
to students and their families at the time of school
enrollment. This bill creates a similar form of outreach
for CSU and CCC in which the campuses can provide students
with information on health care coverage options through
enrollment forms, fact sheets attached to the enrollment
forms, or items posted on Internet Web sites.
The California Department of Education's Web site also
contains information about the ALL IN for Health Campaign
for schools, early learning programs, and after school
programs. This information includes advice that schools
can provide information to families about health coverage
options. http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/el/le/yr14ltr0310.asp
3) Clarifying amendments. At the author's request, staff
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recommends that the bill be amended to: specify that the
information about health care coverage options include how
to apply for Medi-Cal and Covered California; and replace
the references to "information on health care coverage
options and enrollment assistance" with "information on
insurance affordability programs."
4) Fiscal impact. According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill would result in the following:
a) 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
actual costs, but this bill would extend these costs
through 2020-2021.
b) California Community Colleges (CCCs). 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).
c) California State University. Annual General Fund
costs to provide the information to all students would
be around $50,000.
SUPPORT
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Black Health Network
California Children's Health Coverage Coalition
California Coverage and Health Initiatives
California Faculty Association
California Health Advocates
California Immigrant Policy Center
California Primary Care Association
California School Employees Association
California State Student Association
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California Teachers Association
Children's Partnership
Community Health Councils
Health Access California
National Association of Social Workers - California Chapter
OPPOSITION
None received.
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