As the legislative session enters the final month, there are
several bills still in play in the health and human services area
– all of which will be heard on August 17 in the Senate
Appropriations Committee:
CSAC continues to advocate for local government funding in any
new transportation funding package, and hopes to work with
counties to engage legislators on local transportation needs
while they are in their districts during the summer recess, which
lasts until August 17. CSAC has the following suggestions for
actions counties can take:
This week, the 2nd Extraordinary Session Assembly Public Health
and Developmental Services Committee followed the Senate’s lead
by convening their informational hearing on the Managed Care
Organization (MCO) tax and Developmental Disabilities.
Chairing this Committee is Assembly Member Rob Bonta, alongside
Assembly Member Brian Maienschein, Vice Chair. Other Committee
members include Assembly Members: Catharine Baker, Susan Bonilla,
Nora Campos, Eduardo Garcia, Marc Levine, Chad Mayes, Miguel
Santiago, Marc Steinorth, Mark Stone, Tony Thurmond and Jim
Wood.
This week, the 2nd Extraordinary Session Assembly Public Health
and Developmental Services Committee followed the Senate’s lead
by convening their informational hearing on the Managed Care
Organization (MCO) tax and Developmental Disabilities.
Today, the 2nd Extraordinary Session Senate Public Health and
Developmental Services Committee convened an informational
hearing. Members of the Committee include Senators Ed Hernandez
(Chair), Mike Morell (Vice Chair), Joel Anderson, Jim Beall,
Isadore Hall, Mark Leno, Mike McGuire, Holly Mitchell, Bill
Monning, John Moorlach, Jim Nielson, Richard Pan and Lois
Wolk.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold the Affordable Care Act
(ACA) in the King vs. Burwell Case, which challenged the
subsidies provided through the Internal Revenue Service in 36
exchanges run by the federal government under the law.
Challengers argued that the law prohibited subsidies in federal
exchanges and that the law only applied to subsidies established
by a State.
Today both houses will hear 2015-16 budget trailer bills during
their floor sessions. A detailed analysis of the Legislature’s
budget actions will be included in a CSAC Budget Action Bulletin.
This week, the joint Budget Conference Committee closed out all
remaining open items. For details regarding the Conference
Committee’s actions, please refer to the June 10 edition of the
CSAC Budget Action Bulletin.
CSAC Board Adopts Resolution to Combat Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
On May 28, the CSAC Board of Directors approved a resolution to affirm CSAC’s commitment to developing and supporting strategies to prevent, reduce and serve the child victims of commercial sexual exploitation and work to eliminate sex trafficking in California. The Board also approved the distribution of a sample resolution to counties for consideration by each County Board.
The Senate and Assembly Appropriations Committees convened suspense file hearings on Thursday, May 28. There were several health and human services-related bills of significance to counties on the suspense file. See below for a recap of the bill and actions that were taken.
This week, the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 3
and the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 1 concluded their budget
discussions by taking up myriad vote-only items.
Highlights of actions taken by both Subcommittees thus far
include:
The Governor released his May Revision to the January budget this
Thursday, May 14. The May Revision contained a new proposal to
implement a state Earned Income Tax Credit, an additional
investment in California’s workforce programs, increased AB 85
county diversion estimates, and smaller than expected funding for
Medi-Cal county administration.
The California Budget and Policy Center recently released a data
hit revealing a disproportionate share of children living in
poverty in California. From 2011 to 2013, an average of 24.3
percent of Californians were children. Of Californians living in
deep poverty, 32.7 percent were children.
The high-profile vaccination bill continues to move through the
Senate. SB 277, by Senator Richard Pan, would eliminate the
personal belief exemption for required immunizations in order to
attend private (K-12) schools and daycare facilities. After being
heard in both the Senate Health and the Senate Education
Committees, the bill was passed this week by the Senate Judiciary
Committee. It now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
CSAC supports SB 277.
Just six months into implementing the CalWORKs Housing Support
Program, counties and their partners are serving more than 2,200
families by offering an array of flexible services to secure
permanent homes and help them start rebuilding their lives.
This week, the Senate Education Committee passed SB 277, by
Senator Pan, which would eliminate the personal believe exemption
for required immunizations in order to attend public or private
(K-12) schools and daycare facilities. Recall last week, the
Committee held the bill, however with Senator Pan’s recent
amendments – to allow the personal beliefs exemption for students
in a home-based private school and students enrolled in an
independent study – the bill passed and will now be heard in
Senate Judiciary on Tuesday, April 28.
Senate Health Committee Passes Health Care Coverage for the
Undocumented Bill
This week the Senate Health Committee heard SB 4, a measure by
Senator Ricardo Lara to provide health care coverage through
Medi-Cal or Covered California to undocumented people in
California. The Committee heard testimony from advocacy groups
and undocumented individuals, who recalled several occasions
where the individual or a family member required medical
attention, but did not obtain it due to the cost of the services
and/or knowing that they would be turned away from primary care.
Thursday was a busy day for Senate Budget and Fiscal Review
Subcommittee No. 3, which convened at 11 a.m. and adjourned
shortly after 4 p.m. Several items of importance to counties were
discussed, including the Drug Medi-Cal Waiver, Continuum of Care
Reform, and the County Welfare Directors of California’s Approved
Relative Caregivers budget augmentation proposal. All items were
held open. Agendas are linked below and contain good background
information on the issues heard:
California Submits Medicaid Waiver Renewal to Feds
The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS)
submitted its Medicaid Section 1115 waiver renewal proposal –
titled “Medi-Cal 2020” – to the federal Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS) on March 27. DHCS has a waiver submission
page on its website with all of the documents submitted to
CMS:
www.dhcs.ca.gov/provgovpart/Pages/1115-Waiver-Renewal-Official-Submission.aspx
