Public health programs such as Medi-Cal and the Healthy Families Program provide health coverage to more than 4 million California children. Despite these successes, approximately 1 million California children remain uninsured. With the goal of ensuring that all of California's children have access to health care, our work includes protecting children's safety net programs in the California budget and working with a coalition of children's advocates to influence policymakers and the implementation of relevant health coverage policies that affect children and families in California.
On June 27, 2012, Governor Jerry Brown signed a budget that will eliminate the Healthy Families Program and shift nearly 900,000 children to Medi-Cal. As this transition happens, it is our goal to:
- Ensure that children both currently enrolled in Medi-Cal and children who would be transitioning into Medi-Cal have access to care
- Make sure cost-sharing is affordable for families
- Provide families with the information that they need to understand what the transition will mean for their children
Key Elements of a Responsible Healthy Families Transition to Medi-Cal:
In order to ensure an effective, responsible transition, our children's health coverage coalition opposes a transfer of children from the Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal until seven pre-requisites, detailed here, are met.
Resources:
- California’s Child Health and Disability Prevention (CHDP) Gateway Program Under Health Reform
- Key Elements of a Responsible Healthy Families Transition to Medi-Cal
- Facts about Children's Health Coverage in California
- What Families Should Know about Changes to the Healthy Families Program
- Changes in Cost-sharing for Children Transitioning from the Healthy Families Program to Medi-Cal
- Child-only Plan Provisions of the ACA in the Context of Essential Health Benefits
