BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    




          Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary

                                SB 82  (Vasconcellos)

Hearing Date:5/27/99            Amended:4/22/99        
Consultant: David Maxwell-Jolly     Policy Vote:H&HS 5-1
____________________________________________________________ 

BILL SUMMARY: 

SB 82 provides medically necessary prenatal care under  
Medi-Cal to women who are not lawful residents of the  
United States. 

                         Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
  
Major Provisions               1998-99              1999-2000        2000-01   Fund  

Prenatal benefits                   32,000*         64,000General
Savings                                       unknownGeneral and 
                                                      federal

*This amount is included in the Governor's proposed budget.

STAFF COMMENTS:  

SUSPENSE FILE

The cost-effectiveness of prenatal care has been well  
documented.  Without it, the extra cost of treating newborn  
babies and the emergency complications of the birth could  
be more than the outlays for prenatal care.  But savings to  
the state may not fully offset the total cost of prenatal  
coverage because an unknown number of these women, even  
though they lose Medi-Cal coverage, will continue to  
receive prenatal care through indigent care programs  
offered by the counties and community clinics.

The 1996 federal welfare reform law requires states to  
re-enact programs providing benefits to residents who are  
"non-qualified aliens" or to discontinue the benefits.   
(For the most part, non-qualified aliens are non-citizens  
who are not legal residents of the United States.)  In 1996  
Governor Wilson, through executive order, initiated efforts  
to end prenatal benefits to undocumented women.  The  
implementation of this order has been on blocked by a  










series of preliminary injunctions issued in state court in  
three suits.  The suits raise a variety of issues related  
to the procedures used to implement the order and issues  
related to the content of the proposed regulations.  Two of  
the suits are still pending.  A fourth suit pending in  
federal court raises constitutional issues regarding the  
federal government's authority to require state to reenact  
statutes for immigrants to allow  benefits to continue.