Health

SACRAMENTO - California's leading children's advocates today congratulated Governor Brown on signing key legislation that moves health care reform forward in California, and sets the stage for improving access to health care coverage for children. By signing AB 1296 (Bonilla), AB 922 (Monning) and SB 51 (Alquist), the Governor allows the state to continue to move forward on implementation of the Affordable Care Act in California.

Read full press release .

Jenny Kattlove, Director, Strategic Health Initiatives
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
September 09, 2011

Download Power Point Presentation

By Beth Morrow | September 2011

The Children's Partnership has developed a guide to maximize HIT's ability to engage child and parent consumers in their own health by improving access to and use of their electronic health information. When designed with children and parents in mind, HIT can connect, inform, empower, and protect -- four guide posts to effective engagement of this critical consumer segment.

Download the report.

Sacramento, CA: On behalf of the state’s leading children’s advocates, Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President of The Children’s Partnership, released the following statement in response to recent communications regarding a potential 37 percent shortfall in California’s Healthy Families budget for the current fiscal year. 

Read full press statement.

The California Health Benefit Exchange launched its stakeholder engagement process. Two separate workgroups were established to address eligibility and enrollment process issues specific to both the individual and small employer markets. 

Read more about the stakeholder workgroups . 

Say Ahhh! A Children's Health Policy Blog

Kristen Golden Testa guest blogs on maintaining children's health coverage.

By Beth Morrow, Kristen Golden Testa, Terri Shaw, and Lisa Han | July 2011

This visual companion piece to Easy, Efficient, Real-Time (EER): A Framework for a First-Class Health Insurance Enrollment Experience in California walks the viewer through an individual's ideal enrollment experience. View the Guide.

By Beth Morrow | July 2011

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of uninsured adults and children will gain eligibility for Medicaid or health coverage through new health insurance Exchanges beginning in 2014. The law calls upon states to develop simple and streamlined processes for establishing, verifying and updating eligibility for Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and federal subsidies for Exchange coverage.

By Beth Morrow, Kristen Golden Testa, Terri Shaw, and Lisa Han | July 2011

This Framework lays out, step by step, how eligibility, enrollment, and retention should work for consumers so that California can meet the expectations of the Affordable Care Act. While developed for California, this Framework can be used in any state to help stakeholders focus on the elements that matter most for consumers. It is designed to be a practical resource for decision-makers as they work to achieve our shared goal: a simple, efficient door into health care in California that works well for its consumers.

Download the issue brief  (PDF, 862 KB).

Momsrising.org

Kristen Golden Testa guest blogs  on maintianing health coverage for kids. 

Sacramento, CA  - Acoalition of California children’s advocacy organizations expressed opposition to federal legislation that would eliminate state Medicaid eligibility and enrollment requirements and jeopardize the health coverage of 4.5 million California children.

The legislation introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA) would repeal a provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires states to maintain current eligibility and enrollment requirements for Medicaid and CHIP. In California, this children’s coverage stability provision (Maintenance of Effort) ensures that children currently eligible for and covered by Medi-Cal and Healthy Families cannot be dropped from coverage. 

Download a press statement by Wendy Lazarus.

Oakland – California's leading children's health advocacy organizations commended Governor Jerry Brown for his leadership in protecting the health care of California children and the state's taxpayers by rejecting a federal proposal to shift an estimated $148 billion in Medi-Cal costs from the federal government to California.

Download the press release.  

Voices for America's Children

Wendy Lazarus guest blogs  on the one-year anniversay of the ACA.

Oakland – Children Now, The Children's Partnership, United Ways of California, and the California Children's Health Initiatives announced the receipt of grants today from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation under the Foundation's Insuring America's Children: Getting to the Finish Line initiative. These organizations partner with Children's Defense Fund – California and PICO California in their children's health work. These grants coincide with the two-year anniversary of the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and will support the organizations in their work to advance policies and best practices that can help cover California children and their families.

Download full press release. 

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and Assembly Member Mike Feuer, joined by Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President of The Children's Partnership, representing The 100% Campaign held a news conference today at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles to highlight a critical open-enrollment period for kids' health insurance that began on January 1, 2011 and ends on March 1.

Download press release.
Download Wendy Lazarus' full remarks.

Yubanet.com covered the event in this January 28, 2012 article . 

 

La Opinion

Download the article here.

By Beth Morrow | October 2010

The success of the Affordable Care Act in achieving near-universal health coverage will depend on the effectiveness of the enrollment and renewal processes that states put in place. The law establishes the expectation that systems should enroll individuals with the minimum possible burden and handle transitions seamlessly.

This brief, published in partnership with the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, explains the key enrollment-related provisions of the health reform law, discusses the elements of an enrollment system that would comply with the law's requirements, and offers strategies -- and examples -- of how to achieve such a system.

With a quickly approaching 2014 deadline, states must begin working together with federal agencies and stakeholders to put critical policies and systems in place. As states address the immediate challenge of designing and building an Exchange, coordination with Medicaid and CHIP at all points in the enrollment process -- from application at the front-end, to data retrieval and verification at the back end -- is a fundamental organizing principle.

Download Now (PDF, 709 KB)

By Beth Morrow | August 2010

Download the submitted comments to HIT Policy Committee, CMS-0033-P

HealthyCal.org

Download the article here.

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Download article here.

By Beth Morrow | January 2010