Children's Health Coverage Update

In the past twelve months, United Ways of California (UWCA) has continued to raise the importance of health care coverage for children. Below is an update from UWCA State Advocacy Director Judy Darnell about the progress that has been made:

State Children's Coverage Update

The Assembly passed a compromise health reform bill on Monday. While United Way will remain silent on the larger universal reform bill, we are glad to see that the Governor and leadership worked hard to include an expanded children's health program to cover all children up to 300% of Federal Poverty. The policy for children is good. However, the financing for the whole package will be based on a ballot initiative in November 2008 that includes many controversial vehicles such as Tobacco tax increase, hospital fee, employer fee. The Senate will not vote on the bill until mid January so the whole deal is far from final. In the meantime, we continue to hold discussions along with our partners, CA Children's Health Initiatives and others to find funding to sustain coverage for many children throughout the state who are at risk of losing coverage due to the lack of sustainable funding to our local Children's Health Initiatives. Some progress is being made and hopefully there will be good news in the new year.

Federal SCHIP Update

After Senate passage, the House voted 411-3 to approve legislation (S 2499) that would extend SCHIP through March 2009 and delay for six months a 10% physician fee cut. President Bush is expected to sign the measure. The bill would increase Medicare physician fees by 0.5% for six months and would extend several programs that provide higher Medicare reimbursement rates to rural health care providers and hospital laboratories. A summary distributed by the Senate Finance Committee showed that the legislation would provide enough funding for states to maintain their current enrollment levels.

Excerpt from Sacremento Bee on SCHIP extension:

“Rep. Doris Matsui of Sacramento hailed passage of the legislation despite its shortcomings. ‘What is important right now is that Congress has acted to ensure that no child in California currently enrolled in the program will be dropped off due to the president's misguided priorities,’ she said in a prepared statement. ‘Without the action we took today, over 600,000 children in California – and more than 10,000 in Sacramento alone – would lose their health coverage before the end of 2008.’”

In the coming year, UWCA will focus on the engagement, education and activation of many more of our community and business partners.