BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




          Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary

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|                               |AB 52  (Cedillo)            |
|-------------------------------+----------------------------|
|                               |                            |
|-------------------------------+----------------------------|
|Hearing Date: 7/12/99          |Amended: 3/16/99            |
|-------------------------------+----------------------------|
|Consultant: David              |Policy Vote: H&HS 6-2       |
|Maxwell-Jolly                  |                            |
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____________________________________________________________ 

BILL SUMMARY:  AB 52 provides that any person who would  
have been eligible for the following health programs on  
July 16, 1996, shall continue to be eligible regardless of  
their immigration status, as long as he or she meets all  
other applicable requirements:
 California Children's Services;
 Genetically Handicapped Persons Program;
 Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centers;
 Traumatic Brain Injury Project;
 Caregiver resource centers;
 Children's Early Intervention Mental Health Services;
 Services for the developmentally disabled;
 Adult Mental Health System of Care;
 Children's Systems of Care
 Community mental health services;
 Medi-Cal long-term care.
 Special education services for children with  
  disabilities. 

                         Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
  
Major Provisions    1999-2000     2000-01      2001-02      Fund  

Various              unknown potential costs       General

STAFF COMMENTS:  This bill may meet the criteria to be  
placed on the Suspense file.

The bill implements the state option to continue state  
services to non-qualified aliens as defined in the 1996  
federal welfare reform act.  That bill requires states,  
unless they enact legislation to the contrary, to stop  










providing state and local public benefits to non-qualified  
aliens.  In general this means undocumented persons.   
Implementation of the federal requirement was begun under  
the Wilson administration through executive order, however  
many of the program identified in this bill were not affect  
by that order.

The fiscal effect of this bill has two elements:
 a) It avoids the cost of implementing citizenship  
   verification in each of these programs.
 b) It also prevents reduction in spending in programs  
   where excluding non-qualified aliens would reduce  
   caseload and thereby reduce state spending. 

                           









































AB 52, as amended 3/16/99
7/12/99 hearing
Page 2


In many cases disqualification for services in these  
caseload driven progarms will not save the state money  
because the person will receive services under some other  
program.  For example, denying payment for long term care  
in Medi-Cal will likely result in longer hospitalizations  
or more emergency room treatment.  Both of these services  
are available to non-qualified aliens.  Failure to provide  
community mental health services will also increase  
emergency room admissions, inpatient days, and jail and  
prison populations.  

Several of these programs receive annual appropriations  
that are not based on caseload.  Disqualifying  
non-qualified aliens would not affect state spending.   
These include Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and Treatment  
Centers, Traumatic Brain Injury Project, Caregiver resource  
centers, Children's Early Intervention Mental Health  
Services, Community mental health services, Adult Mental  
Health System of Care, and Children's Systems of Care.