A bill to restore funding to the Healthy Families children's insurance program was approved by the Assembly this afternoon 62-5.
AB 1422 would fill the more than $100 million funding shortfall faced by the program by raising premiums and co-pays for some families and replacing an existing fee on managed care providers that contract with Medi-Cal set to expire with a new, lower tax. The bill was passed by the Senate earlier this week and now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.
Schwarzenegger issued a statement shortly after the vote saying he would sign the bill and calling its passage a "great victory for California's kids."
"I am very pleased that all parties came together including the Legislature, the health plan industry, children's health advocates, the First Five Commission and others to find a shared solution to fund this important program that ensures not one child will lose their health care coverage -- without any new general fund dollars," he said in the statement. "Everyone was forced to make very difficult but necessary decisions to balance our budget, and these are the kinds of solutions we should be looking for in this tough economy."
Once signed into law, the additional funding will allow the board that runs the program to cancel plans to disenroll an estimated 600,000 children because of insufficient operating funds.
Read Susan Ferriss' story on the bill here.
This post was updated at 4:35 p.m. to include Schwarzenegger's statement. It was also updated at 10 a.m. Friday to reflect the final vote on the bill; some Assembly members changed their vote after the initial call, a practice that is permitted during the floor session as long as the switch does not change the final outcome of the vote.
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