Medicaid/Medi-Cal

Santa Monica, CA - Wendy Lazarus, Founder & Co-President, joins a broad coalition of health care officials and advocates for a press event in Los Angeles to urge state elected officials to move quickly to expand Medi-Cal.  If legislation to expand Medi-Cal is not signed into law in the next 6 weeks, over one million low-income, working people will be left without coverage as healthcare reform is implemented. For each month of delay, California will lose hundreds of millions of federal dollars.

From Ms. Lazarus' statement, "After decades of work to secure health coverage and care for California’s 10 million children, we are finally only 188 days away from when the doors to that coverage will open thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The Medi-Cal expansion is an indispensable piece to ensure that when families start to enroll on October 1, 1.4 million low-income parents and childless adults will not be left out. Although the Medi-Cal expansion would provide coverage for adults, it also affects millions of children." 

Download Ms. Lazarus' full statement and event press release. 

The Children''s Partnership joins a coalition of child advocates to ensure that children with autism do not lose access to critical behavioral health services after their transition from Healthy Families to Medi-Cal. “The state needs to address this urgent situation immediately and ensure children in Medi-Cal receive medically necessary behavioral health therapies,” said Wendy Lazarus, Founder & Co-President of The Children’s Partnership. “Because of this serious problem, the state should not move forward with any future phases of the Healthy Families transition until the issue is resolved and continuity of care can be assured.”

Download the full press release here. (pdf)

Jenny Kattlove, Director, Strategic Health Initiatives presented "Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage:  Half of California's Kids Depend On It" to the San Luis Obispo Children's Oral Health Coalition, San Luis Obispo, CA. 

Download slides from the presentation here. (pdf)

Jenny Kattlove, Director, Strategic Health Initiatives presented "Fix Medi-Cal Dental Coverage:  Half of California's Kids Depend On It" at the Maternal and Child Health Access monthly meeting on March 21, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.

Download slides from the presentation here. (pdf)

Download TCP's submitted comments to CMS on the proposed Online and Paper Model Applications, CMS-10440.

Lamorinda Weekly

Wendy Lazarus describes the lack of access to dental care for children in Medi-Cal. 

Download the full article here.

The Children's Partnership joined the Children's Defense Fund and other child advocacy organizations on a letter to HHS on a new health care law requirement that former foster care youth be covered by Medicaid to the age of 26. 

Download the letter here. 

California Healthline

The Heathy Families transition started Jan. 1, moving 197,000 children to Medi-Cal managed care plans. So far, according to DHCS officials, the telephone complaint hotline has been pretty quiet. "That's what we're trying to assess right now," said Kristen Golden Testa, director of the California Health Program for The Children's Partnership. She said several provider groups are conducting surveys of their members to see what providers are experiencing, and that data hasn't come in yet. "I'm not sure I would rely on the call center and complaint lines because on the ground is where we'll hear it," she said. 

Download the full article here.

California's Children, by HSMC 

Download full article here.

By Jenny Kattlove | January 2013

Medi-Cal’s dental program will soon provide dental services to about 50 percent of California’s children. Yet, the program has proven to be inadequate to meet their needs. This Issue Brief spotlights stories of children enrolled in Medi-Cal trying to access dental care. The Brief highlights the challenges facing Medi-Cal in providing dental care to children, examines the State’s efforts to address these problems, and provides an action plan to help the program serve its growing number of enrollees. 

Download the Issue Brief
Download the Press Statement 

--To read more stories of families who have struggled to access needed dental care for their children, visit Meet the Children Behind the Issue.
--To read about TCP’s efforts to improve the oral health of California’s underserved children, please visit Dental Health Agenda for Children.

The Children's Partnership signed-on with Community Catalyst as one of 193 groups from thirty-four states and Washington, DC urging the Democratic Congressional Leadership to protect Medicaid in the current budget debate to avert the fiscal cliff. 

Download the full letter here.

California Healthline

State health officials will go on as scheduled with the first phase of the Healthy Families transition to Medi-Cal managed care, beginning January 1, 2013. Children's health advocates say they will do everything to support that effort while still keeping a careful eye on its progress.

"The signs are the Brown Administration will proceed with this, so the attention has to be on how to monitor what's happening," says Wendy Lazrus, founder and co-president of The Children's Partnership.

Download the article with her full comments here. 

California Watch

As 870,000 children are moved from the Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal beginning January 1, 2013, children's advocates express concern about children having access to care. "Our worry is that there seems to be an intention to proceed with these transitions without that certainty that the doctors will be there to meet all these kids," said Kathleen Hamilton, director of governmental affairs with the Children's Partnership.

Download the full article. (PDF)

The Children's Partnership signed-on with NHeLP and other California child advocate organizations to voice comments and concerns about California's Section 1115 Waiver Amendment Request regarding the Children's Health Insurance Program Transition to Medicaid Program. 

Download the letter here . 

According to a new report by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families, the rate of uninsured children in California declined 1.5 percent between 2009 and 2011, which ranks the state 12th in the nation for the decline in the child uninsured rate. 

“This reduction in uninsured children is fantastic news for our state’s children and families, said Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President of The Children’s Partnership. “With the implementation of health care reform just around the corner and our state’s commitment to successfully transition nearly 900,000 children from Healthy Families to Medi-Cal, it is finally within our reach to ensure that every child in California receives high quality health coverage.”

Read more about the effort to insure all of California's children in the joint press release here. 

SACRAMENTO, CA – This week, the 100% Campaign highlighted a new Urban Institute report whose findings call into question Governor Brown's proposal to move 875,000 children covered by Healthy Families into Medi-Cal. The issue brief, "The Future of Healthy Families:Transitioning to 2014 and beyond," summarizes research examining the potential impact of moving children currently receiving health coverage through California's Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal or the California Health Benefit Exchange.

Download the full press release.  

SACRAMENTO, CA – In response to Governor Brown's release of his 2012-13 budget proposal, a coalition of leading children's health advocates in California expressed concern about the scope of proposed cuts and fundamental changes to children's health care, and fear that such a proposal could significantly jeopardize access to health care for California children.

Read full press release.

State Health Watch

Download article here.

In Time to Send THeir Kids Back to School Healthy 

Comprehensive Health, Dental, Vision Coverage for Children in Low-Income & Working Families

Oakland - For the first time in California, families preparing for the new school year can apply, on their own, for free or low-cost health coverage through the Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs for their children online using Health-e-App, an online application tool. Health coverage can ensure that children have the immunizations, physicals, and other routine & preventive health care services they need to be able to do their best in school.

Read full press release . 

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.

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.  

The Press-Enterprise

Download the article here.