BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 2706 (Hernandez) - Schools: Health Care Enrollment
Amended: May 27, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 4-2
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2706 requires schools 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 Impact:
Template: Minor costs to the California Department of
Education (CDE), to develop the required templates, post
them on its website, and make copies available upon request.
Mandate: Potentially significant reimbursable state mandate
on the state's approximately 1,000 school districts, to
provide information about health care coverage options and
enrollment assistance. See staff comments.
Background: Existing law 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.
Existing law 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)
Proposed Law: This bill requires schools 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. Schools can either (a) use a template developed by
AB 2706 (Hernandez)
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the CDE, or (b) develop an informational item or amend an
existing enrollment form.
Schools are also authorized to include a factsheet with their
enrollment forms explaining basic information about affordable
health care coverage options for children and families.
This bill requires the CDE to develop a standardized template
for, and to make available on its website and provide written
copies upon request, both of the following: a) the informational
item or amended existing enrollment form; b) the fact sheet
authorized by this bill.
Staff Comments: The primary cost of this bill will be to pay the
new state mandate on school districts to distribute information
about health care coverage options and enrollment assistance to
their students/families. Any staff time or district resources
spent developing an informational item, amending an existing
enrollment form, or distributing the CDE template, would likely
be deemed by the Commission on State Mandates to be reimbursable
mandated activities, because they constitute a higher level of
service. While this bill provides for the CDE to create a
template that schools can use, it allows schools to develop
their own materials or amend existing enrollment forms.
If a successful mandate claim is filed, all school districts
would be eligible to be reimbursed for either distributing the
CDE template or creating and publishing their own materials.
Even school districts that already provide health care coverage
enrollment information within their local resources would become
newly eligible to have their costs reimbursed though the state
mandate process. If an employee at each of California's
approximately 10,000 schools spent 2 hours per school
implementing this bill's provisions, at an average staff time
cost of $50 per hour including benefits, costs would be
approximately $1 million.