Budget Updates

This week the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 3 on Health and Human Services heard several items of importance to counties including: In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Supplemental Security Income/State Supplemental Payments (SSI/SSP) and CalWORKs. In addition, the Subcommittee heard two budget augmentations proposed by the County Welfare Directors Association – a $5 million dollar increase in state funding for Adult Protective Services training and a $30 million increase in funding in 2015-16 for the CalWORKs Housing Support Program (HSP) – both strongly supported by CSAC.

Ventura County, a recipient of the first round of the 2014-15 CalWORKs Housing Support Program grants, has experienced some early success in their HSP, and were recently highlighted in an article from the Ventura County Star entitled “New County Housing Program makes homeless family feel rich”.

The Subcommittee held all items open.

IHSS Stakeholder Statewide Authority Seeking Applicants

The California In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Statewide Authority is soliciting applications for the IHSS Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC will consist of 13 members made up of consumers, IHSS providers, union representatives and advocates. They will provide ongoing advice and recommendations to the IHSS Statewide Authority, Department of Social Services and the Department of Health Care Services.

Applications must be postmarked or submitted electronically by May 1, 2015. Appointments to the SAC will be announced at the next IHSS Statewide Authority Meeting on August 6, 2015.

The application and additional information can be found on the IHSS Statewide Authority webpage.

Tobacco

Board of Equalization Member Fiona Ma prepared a report, “E-Cigarette: Challenges and Opportunities in California”, for the Legislature, highlighting the lack of regulation of e-cigarettes at the state and federal level. E-cigarettes are treated differently than other tobacco and nicotine products in that the state does not recoup any additional revenues to offset the potential long-term costs the state incurs in providing healthcare to users.

There are several tobacco-related bills currently being heard in the legislature. The CSAC Health and Human Services Policy Committee on March 25 included a discussion about tobacco-related legislation. The discussion highlighted three particular bills:

• AB 213 (Garcia), which would prohibit the sale of any device intended to deliver a non-nicotine product in a vapor state to persons under the age of 18.
• SB 24 (Hill), which would extend the Stop Tobacco Access to Kids Enforcement (STAKE) Act to include electronic cigarettes and prohibit their sale to minors. It would require the Department of Public Health to enforce the STAKE Act’s provisions with regards to sales of e-cigarettes.
• SB 151 (Hernandez), which would change the minimum legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 years of age.

CSAC staff will present an analysis of these bills at the next HHS Policy Committee meeting, tentatively set for April.

DHCS Health Homes Webinar

The Department of Health Care Services has announced that they will be hosting a webinar for the release of their updated Health Homes for Patients with Complex Needs Concept Paper – Version 2.0. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, April 15 from 9 – 10:30 am. DHCS will accept comments on the updated concept paper until the close of business on May 6.

Registration must be completed by Friday, April 10; however space is limited. To register, please go to:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4022067775666844930.

Health Insurance and Demographics of California Immigrants Eligible for Deferred Action – Policy Brief

The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research released a policy brief discussing the health insurance status, Medi-Cal eligibility, and demographics of California immigrants eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). In November 2014, President Obama announced the expansion of DACA and creation of a new program DAPA.

The UC Berkeley brief estimates that:

• Up to 57% of DACA and DAPA-eligible Californians lacked private health insurance and had an income below the Medi-Cal eligibility threshold in 2013.
• Between 360,000 to 500,000 Californians with DACA or DAPA could be eligible for Medi-Cal after several years of implementation.
• No all who are granted DACA or DAPA and are eligible will enroll in health coverage.
• Two-thirds of the people eligible were working in 2013.
• 92% of those eligible were under the age of 45 in 2013.

To view the full brief, click here.