July 2002 - Vol. 1, No 4

• State Graded on Opportunities Afforded Welfare Recipients
• DNA Tests May Soon Be Permitted to Rescind Support Orders
• New Report Investigates Disparity in Incarceration of Latino Youth
• Use of Charitable Choice Funds in California Increases Ten-Fold
• California Counties Respond to President Bush's Marriage Promotion
• Reports Highlight Need for Increased Health Coverage Among Low-Income Californians
• Low-Income Health Coverage Likely to Be Most Affected by State Budget Cuts

State Graded on Opportunities Afforded Welfare Recipients

The Center for Third World Organizing Grassroots Organizing for Leadership (GROWL), a national welfare-rights organization based in Oakland, has produced a report card grading the fifty states on their provision of welfare in such areas as time limits, sanctions, and passed through child support. California scored highest for its rejection of marriage initiatives, its implementation of comprehensive sex education without abstinence-only education, and in its provision of state benefits to immigrants denied federal aid. The state received a failing grade, however, for its lifetime ban on benefits to ex-offenders, its family cap policy (denying benefits for additional children produced while on aid), its caseload reduction exceeding its poverty reduction, lack of adequate maternity leave for recipients with newborns, and insufficient opportunity for adult basic education and English as a Second Language.

The full report is available at http://www.ctwo.org/growl/pdf/Failing%20Our%20Families.pdf.

DNA Tests May Soon Be Permitted to Rescind Support Orders

The California Senate is considering legislation (AB 2240) that would permit judges to consider DNA test results to rescind paternity judgement at any time within three years of the contestant finding reason to believe there may have been an error in establishing paternity. Currently paternity must be contested within two years of establishment, regardless of later evidence. Though the legislation has been promoted by fathers' rights groups, for low-income noncustodial parents (whose orders are established at an especially high default rate of 70% in California), this legislation may be especially beneficial by allowing them to contest establishment that was done by legal process of which they had no knowledge or in which they did not participate. The bill was introduced by Assemblyman Rod Wright (D-Los Angeles) and passed the Assembly on May 28, 2002 with a 57-3 vote (21 abstained). For more information on AB 2240, please visit www.leginfo.ca.gov.

New Report Investigates Disparity in Incarceration of Latino Youth

Building Blocks for Youth, a multi-year initiative convened to address the over-representation and disparate treatment of youth of color in the justice system, has released new figures and policy recommendations relevant to California, including the following:

• Latino youth were disproportionately represented at each point of the judicial process (including arrest, trial as adult, and incarceration), to accumulate a total effect of being twelve times more likely than white youth who committed violent crime to be incarcerated in Los Angeles. The largest national disparity was to be found in incarceration for drug offenses (thirteen times the rate of white youth).
• Latino youth were more likely to be suspected of gang activity with results of mandatory harsher sentences.
• The report recommended repealing Proposition 21 of the year 2000, which gives prosecutors the discretion to send juveniles to adult courts and prison facilities (particularly for gang-related activity). (This measure was recently upheld by the California Supreme Court in February 2002 after a challenge led by youth advocates).
• Latino youth were also likely to encounter additional challenges to due process such as harsh treatment by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and language barriers to service provision.

The full report is available at www.buildingblocksforyouth.org.

Use of Charitable Choice Funds in California Increases Ten-Fold

A recent survey estimates that at least 107 California faith-based organizations (FBO's) and churches accessed $15.7 million in federal funds in 2002, including TANF and Welfare to Work (the 2000 survey uncovered only 11 groups using $1.9 million). Ten of the FBO's receive annual grants over $500,000. The study did not include $50 million in state funds provided to twenty programs under Governor Davis' "Faith-Based Initiative".

A partial listing of the funds received by California churches and FBO's can be found at www.hudsonfaithincommunities.org.

California Counties Respond to President Bush's Marriage Promotion

Workforce Services in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties advocate for increased job training and English-language instruction rather than marriage promotion as proposed by President Bush in the welfare reauthorization debate and included in the House of Representatives legislation sponsored by Wally Herger (R-Chico) which would provide $300 million to states to promote marriage (the currently debated Senate version provides $200 million for marriage promotion and related activities). In addition to philosophical disagreement with the involvement of government in the private decisions of poor families, the counties cite the recently calculated figure of 37% English deficiency among Contra Costa County's welfare recipients as reason the counties should focus their energies on English instruction instead of marriage promotion. For an update on federal welfare reauthorization activity, please see the most recent editions of CFFPP's National Policy Briefing available at www.cffpp.org.

The July 13, 2002 article can be found at www.bayarea.com.

Reports Highlight Need for Increased Health Coverage Among Low-Income Californians

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research released comprehensive findings on health care coverage across the state in its June 2002 report, "The State of Health Insurance in California: Findings from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey," including:

• In 2001 over 4.5 million Californians, or 15% of the nonelderly population, lacked coverage in a single month.
• Los Angeles County leads the state and nation with 20% lacking coverage; San Francisco County was also above the state average at 13%.
• Latinos had the highest uninsured rate at 28%. Half of noncitizens lacking green cards were uninsured.
• Half of the uninsured were working.
• Of one million uninsured children, 355,000 are eligible for Medi-Cal and 301,000 are eligible for Healthy Families. 180,000 children are ineligible for assistance due to citizenship status. (Medi-Cal and Healthy Families are California's state programs of federal Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program or SCHIP).
• The uninsured were significantly less likely to access regular medical care, and were more likely to depend on clinics and hospitals for care.

The full report can be found at www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu.

Several other reports have recently been made available:

• A report from the University of California at Irvine shows that urban American Indian children are the least likely ethnic group to be insured in California, with 45% of eligible children not enrolled in either Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. The report, "Insuring California's Healthy Future: Use of Medi-Cal and Healthy Families Public Insurance Programs by California's Ethnic Minority Communities," examines usage of health benefits by Latino, African-American, Asian, and urban American Indian families and can be accessed at www.trpi.org/PDF/Insuring_California%27s_Health_Future.pdf.
• A May policy brief of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research examines lack of health coverage among single mothers (uninsured at a rate of one in four), and among its recommendations, advocates for the extension of Healthy Families to parents (see budget discussion below). The brief can be accessed at www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/publications/mothers05232002.pdf.
• Los Angeles was one of six U.S. cities in a study that showed a higher incidence of food insecurity and hospitalization among children of sanctioned welfare families and of families with reduced benefits. The full report is available from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at archpedi.ama-assn.org.
• For a detailed recent history and policy analysis of low-income health care in California, please see the March 2002 Urban Institute publication, "Recent Changes in Health Policy for Low-Income People in California" at www.urban.org.
• For state comparisons of health policy, please see two reports released in May 2002 by the Urban Institute and the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured: "Health Policy for Low-Income People: Profiles of 13 States" at www.urban.org and "Can Medicaid Work for Low-Income Working Families?" at www.kff.org.

For additional resources on healthcare to serve California's low-income families, please visit:

• www.healtheapp for on-line enrollment in the Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs.
• "Major Benefit Programs Available to Immigrants in California" at the California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative website, www.nilc.org/ciwc.
• "Immigrant Access to Health Benefits: A Resource Manual" available from The Access Project and the National Health Law Program at www.accessproject.org.
• "CalWORKS: A Comprehensive Guide to Welfare and Related Medi-Cal Issues for California Families" addressing eligibility, benefits, childcare, child support, domestic violence, and immigrants. The resource guide is available from the Western Center on Poverty Law at www.wcpl.org.

Low-Income Health Coverage Likely to Be Most Affected by State Budget Cuts

Governor Davis, the Senate, and the Assembly have each proposed a combination of tax increases and program cuts to resolve a state budget deficit exceeding $23 billion (almost double the deficit reported in January. See the January 2002 California Policy Briefing at www.cffpp.org for details). Though the final budget is yet undecided, it appears that the most striking changes could come in the state's provision of low-income health care coverage. Among the debated changes:

• Expansion of Healthy Families to the parents of children covered through the program. Three hundred thousand low-income adults ineligible for Medi-Cal but below 200% of the federal poverty line could be covered by the expansion. In January 2002 California received a federal waiver for the coverage. Though Governor Davis proposed delaying implementation, the legislative Budget Conference Committee has reinstated program implementation for October 2002.
• Reinstating quarterly reporting requirements for food stamps and Medi-Cal, as proposed by Governor Davis, which would have the effect of increasing reporting burdens for recipients and potentially reducing enrollment by 250,000 adults. The budget currently proposed by the Legislature would maintain annual reporting.
• Substantial reductions in outreach programs for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. As two-thirds of one million unenrolled children are eligible for these programs (see the UCLA study above), these cuts would drastically undermine efforts to extend health coverage to all Californians.
• Delayed implementation of Express Lane eligibility which would curb efforts to increase enrollment and reduce paperwork for clients and workers, and to ensure that all eligible food stamp and Medi-Cal enrollees were enrolled in both programs.

Counties have begun to respond to anticipated losses in county revenue due to state cuts:

• Los Angeles County has recently approved a program by which tobacco tax money will be applied to an expansion of low-cost health insurance to poor children under the age of six who are ineligible for Healthy Families and Medi-Cal because of income or citizenship status but remain under 300% of the federal poverty level.
  (From 7/12/02 article available at www.latimes.com).
• Orange County recently cut $39 million in programs serving low-income families including welfare-to-work and job retention programs, transportation, childcare, and outreach programs.
  (From 6/26/02 article available at www.latimes.com).
• Contra Costa County has proposed cutting its food stamp program (now serving 9,200 households) and reducing CalWORKS program staff.
  (From 7/17/02 article available at www.bayarea.com).

For more details please see the recent publication by the Medi-Cal Policy Institute, "Impact of the Proposed 2002-03 Budget on Medi-Cal and Related Health Programs" at www.medi-cal.org. For regular updates on California health coverage please visit www.100percentcampaign.org. For additional analysis and updates related to the state budget, please visit the California Budget Project at www.cbp.org.