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By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
8-15-2009 The governor’s funding cuts to the low-cost Healthy Families insurance program, which helps nearly one million low-income children in the state, will have far-reaching impacts on other programs.
Inyo First 5, the advocacy and assistance program aimed at children from birth to 5 years old, is trying to figure out how take up some of the slack, locally, but its last meeting was called short of addressing the issue, due to minor emergencies by a board member.
Unfortunately, there is no time to waste as the situation is going from bad to worse on a near daily basis. The Healthy Families Program, or HFP, had to implement a waiting list for new applicants on June 29 due to a lack of money.
Now, since HFP’s last meeting on Thursday, Aug. 13 in Sacramento, the board has decided it may have to start disenrolling children. Despite an injection of $243 million into HFP – with a donation from California First 5 and matching federal dollars received at that same Thursday meeting – the program still doesn’t have enough funding to keep it solvent.
The cuts to HFP have created a burden on Inyo First 5, as that age group is the most vulnerable and one of the largest to participate in the program. Inyo First 5 Chair and Second District County Supervisor Susan Cash said in an interview early Thursday morning, “Why are only the 0-5 kids having to go on the waiting list?”
Inyo First 5 Commissioners had a meeting to discuss the impacts to its program and how to deal with them on Thursday, but because of prior, personal obligations by a member, the meeting was cut short and the agenda item never made it to the floor.
The commission will not meet again until September, and the cuts are to go into effect Oct. 1.
Cash was correct when she said Thursday that budget-cutting decisions from the state are in a constant state of flux, and things could change tomorrow.
What isn’t going to change are the massive funding cuts to HFP that could total $270 million for the next year alone, and more than $300 million for fiscal year 2010-11.
Jenny Puddefoot, deputy director of health policy, legislation and external affairs for the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, or MRMIB, the agency that doles out HFP funds, said Thursday that the board met that morning to mixed news.
She said the board had decided that if new funding sources are not found soon, HFP will have to start disenrolling participants. Puddefoot said the decision was taken after considerable deliberation, and not taken lightly.
Puddefoot explained that HFP hopes not to implement the disenrollment process, but if it does, she estimates that more than 60,000 children a month will be dropped from the program.
At the same meeting, the state’s First 5 Commission dedicated $81.5 million to HFP; this amount will be matched 2 to 1 by federal funds for a total of $243 million. Even with the donation, a $126 million shortfall remains.
The HFP board is meeting every week in August to determine what to do and possibly where to go for help.
The Inyo commission was scheduled to talk about a proposal from the MRMIB, for First 5s statewide to pitch in on a “macro level insurance program” to supplement HFP funding, or to keep the funding and “affect children’s health access locally.”
Cash explained the last time Inyo First 5 was asked to participate in the MBMIB macro level plan, Inyo declined.
She said there were two reasons Inyo passed up on the plan before.
One reason was problems with the language concerning Prop 10 funds and supplementation.
Proposition 10, approved by California voters in November 1998, created the California Children and Families Commissions, now commonly known as First 5.
The second reason Inyo declined in the past was that it is unsure whether “sending local dollars to the state will actually serve local kids,” Cash said.
The county supervisor added that in these difficult financial times, it can be even harder to trust the state and what it may cut next, or not pay back.
First 5 is funded by tobacco tax, and has an estimated $2.5 billion in unspent revenue. It is also expected that funding for the First 5 program will eventually dry up as less and less people smoke.
Proposition 1D on the May 19, 2009 ballot, which would have shifted that unspent revenue to support health services for children, was rejected by voters.
Cash said it was unfortunate the commission could not address the item at its short meeting, but she added, “By September or October, we’ll probably have a whole new set of problems to deal with.”
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