Through the recently enacted federal economic stimulus package – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – the federal government has made available over $11 billion to California for our Medicaid program, Medi-Cal. However, receipt of these additional dollars is contingent on maintaining July 2008 Medicaid eligibility levels and enrollment/renewal procedures.

For California, this means that the state must rescind Mid-Year Status Reports (MSRs), a red-tape policy enacted in the 2008-09 state budget, requiring children to renew their Medi-Cal health coverage every six months, instead of once a year. This change alone was expected to cause 250,000 eligible children to lose their health coverage.

However, the Legislature plans to suspend MSRs (via SB X3 24) instead of repealing the policy outright. This compromise was made to secure the two-thirds vote necessary to pass the bill in time to qualify for the federal funds. In other words, some legislators still need to be convinced to help fill the state budget deficit and protect children’s health coverage!

A suspension, instead of repeal, may jeopardize California’s $11 billion share of federal Medicaid relief, and will certainly compromise the state’s efforts to enroll enough children to qualify for additional federal support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program – known in California as Healthy Families. (A provision in the recently enacted Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, or CHIPRA, provides bonus dollars to states that both increase Medicaid enrollment and satisfy certain streamlining procedures, including annual, not semi-annual, reports.)

Of course, a suspension, instead of a repeal, also means that children will still lose needed health coverage – just at a later date. The impact, however, is the same; eligible children will go without the health care they need to grow up healthy and strong.

For more information, please read:

Last Sunday’s San Jose Mercury News editorial on this issue; and

A 100% Campaign in support of repealing Mid-Year Status Reports.

TAKE ACTION! Contact your The Children’s Partnership and the 100% Campaign, I'd like to thank all the MomsRising.org members in California for their steadfast work to ensure that every child has access to health coverage.