Urges Congress to Secure and Expand Assistance for California's Families
Invest in & don’t cut the health and human services that are vital to California’s economy. Health and human services help hundreds of thousands of Californian go to work, through job training, child care, adult care, and other supports. These services keep workers and their families healthy and safe, so they can contribute to the economy. Health and human services are delivered by tens of thousands home care workers, health care providers, and case workers.
WHAT WE ASK • Congress should take immediate steps to secure and expand emergency assistance for health care and safety net programs, jobs and state aid to support California’s recovery.
Specifically, given California’s dire financial situation, we need emergency federal assistance for: • Health care - to prevent millions more Californians from losing health care through extending maintenance of effort provisions and FMAP matching funds; • Safety Net Programs – to preserve desperately needed safety net services as well as extending unemployment benefits, COBRA health insurance and food aid. • Jobs – to maintain thousands of jobs funded through the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund and state fiscal relief; • State Aid - to help state and local governments preserve desperately needed health and human services and support recovery.
Governor Schwarzenegger released his 2010-2011 budget with devastating affects to all Californians on January 8, 2010. To close a nearly $20 billion dollar gap, he has targeted almost $3 billion dollars in cuts to vital health and human services programs which make up our state's core safety net. This proposed budget also relies on a trigger, or assumption that the federal government will give California $6.9 billion dollars, under the threat that he will eliminate many public service programs. This released budget has once again targeted those most vulnerable, including low-income children, seniors, and the disabled.
Here are some of the major cuts to Health and Human services programs.
Summary of Major Cuts to Human Services:
CalWORKs Reductions of $269 million • A 15.7 percent cut to CalWORKs grants. This will cut the maximum grant for a family of three from $694 a month to $586 a month, a $109 a month cut. • Eliminate CalWORKS benefits for legal immigrants who have been in the US for less than five years, effective June 1, 2010 for savings of $22.5 million in 2010-2011.
SSI Reductions of $336 million • $15 a month reduction in SSI grants for individuals. This will reduce the grant from $845 a month to $830 a month. This would drop California to the federal minimum and would be the fourth cut in a year for SSI recipients. • Eliminate the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants Food Assistance reductions of $56 million • Eliminate the California Food Assistance Program • Eliminate the Food Stamp asset test for non-assistance households
In-Home Supportive Service Reductions of $950 million • Eliminate IHSS except for persons with highest needs
• Reduce state contribution to IHSS wages
Child Care & Development Programs Reductions of $200 million • Reduce CalWORKS stage 3 child care funding to only the " neediest familie" rather than to all CalWORKS families who meet income eligibility requirements. • Reduce the reimbursement rate limits in voucher-based programs- including the non-CalWORKS Alternative Payment Program and CalWORKs Stage 2 and 3 child care from 85% to 75%. Reimbursement rate limits for license-exempt providers would be lowered to 70% from 90%. Both of these proposals would go into effect July 1, 2010.
Summary of Major Cuts to Health Services
Medi-Cal and other Health Care Programs Over $1 billion in proposed cuts to health care programs: • Restricting Access to Services and Imposing Cost-Sharing – a $750 million cut • Eliminating the Adult Day Healthcare Program • Drastically reducing health benefits for some legal immigrants
Healthy Families • Reduce Healthy Families Eligibility from 250 to 200 Percent of Poverty. That means rolling back eligibility for the Healthy Families Program from $47,000 to $36,620 per year for a family of three, terminating more than 200,000 • Eliminate Vision Benefit from Healthy Families and Increase Cost Sharing
TRIGGER CUTS
• Elimination of the CalWORKs Program • Elimination of the IHSS Program • Reducing Medi-Cal eligibility to the federal minimum and eliminating the last few optional benefits. • Eliminating the Healthy Families Program, adding more than 875,000 children to the roles of the uninsured
Credit to CIPC, Western Center for Law & Poverty, and California Budget Project for the updated information