San Jose – County supervisors Liz Kniss and Ken Yeager visited with Congressional leaders while attending a Washington, D.C. conference March 3-7 to discuss various legislative and rule-making proposals they believe could adversely affect Santa Clara County.
Their top two concerns are the recent changes to how hospitals are paid for patient services for the uninsured and funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), known as Healthy Families in California.
“We are fighting to keep the County health care system alive and available to the community,” said Kniss, chair of the board’s Health and Hospital System Committee. “If the recently proposed rule changes are not overturned, Valley Medical Center’s revenue will decrease by an additional $32 million annually.”
The supervisors are also concerned by President Bush’s proposal to cut Medicaid funding by $26 billion. This could reduce federal payments to California by $550 million. Valley Medical Center’s revenue would decrease nearly $32 million annually if these rules were to be implemented in September.
“It is unthinkable that the federal government would single out public hospitals by putting a new restrictive rate caps on payments,” said Yeager. “This cap would severely limit funds for care for the uninsured.”
The federal government’s funding of (SCHIP), known as the Healthy Families program in California, is set to expire in September. President Bush’s proposed budget includes increasing funding by $5 billion over five years for a total program budget of $30 billion, but the Congressional Research Service estimates that billions more in additional funding is needed to continue to cover current enrollment levels. The budget also reduces the enhanced SCHIP match for states to the Medicaid rate and calls for a return to SCHIP’s original eligibility parameter – uninsured children at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Sixteen states expanded eligibility with California expanding it to 250 percent.
The President’s proposal would further cut vital federal support of health care services to poor children. As it stands now, Healthy Families serves about 770,000 low-income children in California whose families earn an income of about $41,500 or below for a family of three. In Santa Clara County, nearly 25,000 children are enrolled in Healthy Families, a key component of the overall Children’s Health Initiative.
“We want to be on record in support of the funding it will take to expand the eligibility for Healthy Families coverage in California,” continued Yeager. “The President’s budget would effectively reduce enrollment, which is a huge step backward.”
