TCP & Partners Write to Governor to #KeepKidsCovered
The Children’s Partnership and our allies for health equity submitted three letters to California Governor Gavin Newsom to #KeepKidsCovered.
- TCP’s wide group of allies and partners for children’s health equity wrote Governor Newsom December 8, 2023, to fund and green-light implementation for continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children in his January 2024 budget. Read the letter.
- The Whole Child Equity Partnership (WCEP), which The Children’s Partnership is a leader of, submitted their #KeepKidsCovered letter December 1, 2023. Read or download the letter.
- The members of the Continuous Coverage Coalition — The Children’s Partnership, First 5 Association of California, American Academy of Pediatrics California, Children Now, March of Dimes, Maternal and Children Health Access, National Health Law Program and Western Center on Law and Poverty — also submitted their letter to urge the Governor to greenlight the implementation of the multiyear continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children by including funding in his upcoming January budget proposal. Download the letter.
Scroll down to view and read the letters.
Dear Governor Newsom:
On behalf of California’s babies, toddlers and young children, the undersigned organizations write to urge you to prioritize funding for and give the financial greenlight to implement the multi-year continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children in your upcoming 2024-2025 budget proposal.
Continuous Coverage is an Anti-Racist Solution
We are committed to advancing policy solutions that address the overarching impact and pervasiveness of structural racism that disrupts child health, well-being and family stability, and this includes strengthening programs like Medi-Cal. Medi-Cal coverage is a primary source of coverage for over half of all children in the state and almost 3 out of 4 Medi-Cal children are children of color. Making sure children have a healthy start in life necessitates stable access to coverage, thus protecting that coverage and ensuring it is easily accessible becomes paramount to their healthy childhood development. Providing continuous Medi-Cal coverage would remove enrollment barriers for families and allow Medi-Cal to function in a similarly streamlined manner to employer-based coverage, whereby annual renewal is automatic.
Continuous Coverage Improves Children’s Access to Medi-Cal Coverage
The pandemic underscored the importance of focusing on families in greatest need and ensuring that programs and systems are designed to work effectively for them. One notable policy that has proven to be a significant success during challenging times was the continuous Medicaid coverage protection implemented during the public health emergency (PHE). Without those protections, California children enrolled in Medi-Cal faced gaps in their Medi-Cal coverage as procedural hurdles caused them to lose coverage.
The national demonstration with continuous coverage protections speaks volumes about its effectiveness. Most notably, during the pandemic, the uninsured rate for California children dropped from 3.6 percent to 3.2 percent –a 11% drop. Continuous coverage not only protected children from becoming uninsured, it reduced the uninsurance rate, even during a pandemic.
Unfortunately, the unwinding of the federal continuous coverage protection is resulting in far more children losing Medi-Cal coverage. Despite the Department’s laudable efforts, over 100,000 children were dropped from Medi-Cal in the first 3 months since renewals requirements were restored. Most frustratingly, it is projected that three-fourths of dropped children remain eligible.
Based on narratives gathered during recently conducted focus groups, families are working hard to keep their insurance and a loss in coverage is stressful for families even for a short period of time. Most families we spoke to find out their child’s coverage has been dropped when they are seeking care. Even short gaps in coverage can become a “nightmare” when at an emergency room or seeking life-sustaining medication.
The Solution is Clear: Fund Continuous Coverage for Young Children in the 2024-2025 Budget
With your leadership and that of the Legislature, California adopted in the 2022-23 Budget a continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children ages 0-5. However, the budget policy is conditional, requiring Department of Finance’s (DOF) financial approval in 2024 to let implementation go forward. Waiting until Spring 2024 for DOF to greenlight this policy would delay implementation and more children will needlessly lose their Medi-Cal coverage in the interim. DHCS is ready to implement this protection for children and the time is now to continue your leadership and demonstrate your commitment to California’s children.
By proposing funding and greenlighting the policy for implementation in your January Budget, DHCS can start to move forward with the steps to make this protection operational by January 2025, bringing peace of mind to California children and families.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to witnessing California’s continued dedication to the health and prosperity of California’s babies, toddlers and young children.
In community,
Continuous Med-Cal Coverage Letter to the Governor from the Whole Child Equity Partnership
December 1, 2023
Governor Gavin Newsom
Office of the Governor
1303 10th Street, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Newsom:
On behalf of the Whole Child Equity Partnership (WCEP) – a coalition of community and statewide organizations, advocates, community organizers, direct service providers and issue area experts working across multiple sectors to advocate for holistic policies and programs that center the assets and needs of California’s Black, Native American, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Latinx children prenatal-3 (PN-3) and their families facing the greatest systemic challenges – we write to urge you to prioritize funding for and give the financial greenlight to implement the multi-year continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children in your upcoming January 2024 budget proposal.
Continuous Coverage is an Anti-Racist Solution
In our work to make California the best state to have, raise, and be a child, the WCEP is committed to advancing policy solutions that address the overarching impact and pervasiveness of structural racism that disrupts child health, well-being and family stability and this includes strengthening programs like Medi-Cal. Medi-Cal coverage is a primary source of coverage for over half of all children in the state and 3 out of 4 are children of color. Making sure children have a healthy start in life necessitates stable access to coverage, thus protecting that coverage and ensuring it is easily accessible becomes paramount to their healthy childhood development. Providing continuous Medi-Cal coverage would remove enrollment barriers for families and allow Medi-Cal to function in a similarly streamlined manner to employer-based coverage, whereby annual renewal is automatic.
Continuous Coverage Improves Children’s Access to Medi-Cal Coverage
The pandemic underscored the importance of focusing on families in greatest need and ensuring that programs and systems are designed to work effectively for them. One notable policy that has proven to be a significant success during challenging times was the continuous Medicaid coverage protection implemented during the public health emergency (PHE). Without those protections, California children enrolled in Medi-Cal faced gaps in their Medi-Cal coverage as procedural hurdles caused them to lose coverage.
The national demonstration with continuous coverage protections speaks volumes about its effectiveness. Most notably, during the pandemic, the uninsured rate for California children dropped from 3.6 percent to 3.2 percent –a 11% drop. Continuous coverage not only protected children from becoming uninsured, it reduced the uninsurance rate, even during a pandemic.
Unfortunately, the unwinding of the federal continuous coverage protection is resulting in far more children losing Medi-Cal coverage. Despite the Department’s laudable efforts, over 150,000 children were dropped from Medi-Cal in the first 4 months since renewals requirements were restored. Most frustratingly, it is projected that three-fourths of dropped children remain eligible.
Based on narratives gathered during recently conducted focus groups, families are working hard to keep their insurance and a loss in coverage is stressful for families even for a short period of time. Most families we spoke to find out their child’s coverage has been dropped when they are seeking care. Even short gaps in coverage can become a “nightmare” when at an emergency room or seeking life-sustaining medication.
The Solution is Clear- Fund Continuous Coverage for Young Children in the 2024-2025 Budget
With your leadership and that of the Legislature, California has adopted in the 2022-23 Budget a continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children ages 0-5. However, the budget policy is conditional, requiring Department of Finance’s (DOF) financial approval in 2024 to let implementation go forward. Waiting until Spring 2024 for DOF to greenlight this policy would delay implementation and more children will needlessly lose their Medi-Cal coverage in the interim. DHCS is ready to implement this protection for children and the time is now to continue your leadership and demonstrate your commitment to California’s children.
By proposing funding and greenlighting the policy for implementation in your January Budget, DHCS can start to move forward with the steps to make this protection operational by January 2025, bringing peace of mind to California children and families.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to witnessing California’s continued dedication to the health and prosperity of California’s babies, toddlers and young children.
In Solidarity,
Members of the Whole Child Equity Partnership:
- BlackECE
- Californians for Justice
- Catalyst California
- Community Coalition
- Families in Schools
- First 5 Association of California
- First5LA
- GRACE & End Child Poverty CA
- InnerCity Struggle
- San Diego Community Birth Center
- The Children’s Partnership
- Ventures
Continuous Coverage Coalition Letter to Gov. Newsom to Keep Kids Covered
Governor Gavin Newsom
Office of the Governor
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Newsom,
Our coalition – The Children’s Partnership, First 5 Association of California, American Academy of Pediatrics of California, Children Now, March of Dimes, Maternal and Children Health Access, National Health Law Program and Western Center on Law and Poverty – is writing to urge you to greenlight the implementation of the multi-year continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children by including funding in your upcoming January budget proposal.
We were pleased to see California adopt continuous Medi-Cal coverage protection for young children ages 0 to 5 in the 2022-23 budget. Implementation of this policy as currently written, however, is conditional on the Department of Finance (DOF) determining sufficient funding for the policy in 2024. The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) has a plan for implementation but needs DOF’s approval before it can execute this plan, including seeking federal waiver approval and directing county eligibility system updates. Thus, we urge you to include funding for this policy in your January budget and ask the DOF to explicitly greenlight implementation as soon as possible to ensure this policy will be in place on January 1, 2025, as approved in the 2022-23 Budget Act. Waiting until the Spring or Summer of 2024 to greenlight the continuous coverage protection will most likely delay implementation, leaving more eligible Medi-Cal children to lose coverage unnecessarily.
As you know, Medi-Cal is a primary source of health care coverage for children in California: Well over half of all children in the state are covered by Medi-Cal and almost three-fourths of these children are children of color. Ensuring stable access to Medi-Cal coverage during the first years of life is paramount to promoting healthy childhood development and health equity during the first years of life. Research also shows that Medicaid coverage in childhood, particularly among the youngest children, leads to better health in adulthood, higher educational attainment and greater financial security as adults.
During the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), stable access to Medi-Cal was guaranteed, and this protection prevented coverage gaps for the 1.2 million children ages 0 to 5 with Medi-Cal. Specifically, the percentage of young Medi-Cal children who experienced a gap in coverage dropped from 9% to 2%. On a
broader scale, the uninsured rate during this time for all California children dropped 11%. Continuous coverage not only protected children from becoming uninsured — it reduced the uninsurance rate…during a pandemic!
However, now that PHE protections have ended and California is conducting Medi-Cal redeterminations, children are once again facing gaps in coverage. Over 100,000 children were dropped from Medi-Cal in the first three months of renewals alone. Most frustratingly, it is federally projected that three-fourths of children losing coverage remain eligible, and, in California, 91% of disenrollments are due to procedural reasons, not because there was a finding of ineligibility. This procedural disenrollment rate ranks California 6th worst in the nation.
Even a short gap in a child’s coverage can mean missed opportunities for critical care, revealing the very real repercussions on child’s health and families’ well-being; for example:
A 20-month-old in Alameda was screened for autism spectrum disorder but when the parent brought the child to a regional center to be fully assessed and connect to treatment, the parent found out the 20-month-old’s Medi-Cal coverage was terminated. The Medi-Cal renewal paperwork was confusing and thus was not completed in time. After re-applying, the child had to wait 6 months before coverage was restored. This gap in coverage resulted in precious time lost for possible early intervention for the 20-month-old.
In recent focus groups conducted by our coalition, we found that families are working hard to keep their insurance and a loss in coverage is stressful even for a short period of time–resulting in delayed or forgone care and large out of pocket costs. Most families we spoke to found out their child lost coverage when they were seeking care, creating “nightmare” situations when at an emergency room or seeking life-sustaining medication. These are the realities of families’ experience with losing Medi-Cal coverage.
Two states – Washington and Oregon – have already successfully obtained federal approval for continuous coverage protection policies for young children and are implementing them. California can join their leadership by allowing implementation, including application for a federal waiver, to get underway. A timely implementation necessitates DOF greenlighting this policy’s implementation immediately and ensuring the Administration supports funding in the budget to move this forward. The legislature has previously championed the timely implementation of this policy and would welcome your leadership and greenlight to DHCS to start implementing to meet the January start date.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to witnessing California’s continued dedication to the health and prosperity of our youngest residents.
Sincerely,
The Children’s Partnership
First 5 Association of California
American Academy of Pediatrics California
Children Now
March of Dimes
Maternal and Children Health Access
National Health Law Program
Western Center on Law and Poverty
