CALIFORNIA: STATE SENATE PASSES CHILDREN’S HEALTH CARE
On the eve of its adjournment, the California "Senate passedThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
the first part of a package of bills aimed at providing health
coverage to 600,000 children of poor families," Los Angeles Times
reports. If approved, the new children's health care program
would be the first major "expansion of state-financed health care
in decades." State Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa (D), one of
the authors of the health care measure, described the package as
"a unique opportunity to provide health coverage for hundreds of
thousands of children who now have none."
THE PACKAGE
If fully approved, the new health care program "would cost
an estimated $479 million in its first full year, including $170
million from the state and the rest from the federal government."
According to the Los Angeles Times, the program is aimed at low-
income families in which employed parents do not receive health
care coverage for their children. A family of four earning
$32,000 a year would pay "$27 a month in premiums and $5 for
visits to doctors and prescriptions." The measure has the
support of Gov. Pete Wilson (R) and several other Republican
lawmakers because the program relies heavily on "private
insurance companies to provide the coverage." Both houses are
expected to vote on the "final health care package today"
(Warren/Morain/Ingram/Vanzi/Lesher, 9/12).