Bill Text: CA AB175 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Health care coverage.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB175 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB175-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 175 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 6, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 19, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member V. Manuel Pérez
JANUARY 24, 2013
An act to add Section 124557 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to health care coverage , and making an appropriation
therefor .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 175, as amended, V. Manuel Pérez. Health care coverage.
Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services
to maintain a program for seasonal agricultural and migratory
workers and their families that includes technical and financial
assistance to local agencies concerned with the health of seasonal
agricultural and migratory workers and their families in coordination
with similar programs of the federal government, other states, and
voluntary agencies, and to grant funds to eligible private,
nonprofit, community-based primary care clinics for the purpose of
establishing and maintaining a health services program for seasonal
agricultural and migratory workers and their families. Existing
federal law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA), enacts various health care coverage market reforms that take
effect January 1, 2014.
This bill would establish the Uncovered Worker Health
Trust Fund for the purpose of providing health care coverage
comprehensive primary health care services to
workers ineligible for health care coverage under federal and state
programs, including the PPACA. This bill would authorize voluntary
contributions to be deposited into the trust.
The
This bill would require that trust moneys, as
specified, be distributed by the Primary Health Care
Services Branch Primary, Rural, and Indian Health
Division of the department through its
the authority of the Rural Health Clinic Program. The
bill would require the department to publish a list of employers who
contributed to the trust and make that list available to nonprofit
community health centers. Because the bill would
create a continuously appropriated fund, it would make an
appropriation. The bill would also require the department to
provide those employers contributing to the
trust with a list of nonprofit community health centers ,
as defined, accessible to uncovered workers.
This bill would require the department, on or before
January 1, 2015, March 1, 2015, to prepare
and make available an application form, as specified, for
nonprofit community health centers to use to apply for moneys from
the trust. The bill would require a nonprofit community health
center applying for trust moneys to submit the application to
the department. The bill would also require the department
to distribute trust moneys according to specified criteria.
The bill criteria, and would require
authorize nonprofit community health centers to
utilize mobile medical units and provide transportation to
uncovered workers who reside or are employed in geographical
areas that make access to clinic sites difficult.
This bill would require that the costs to the department of
administering the trust be provided from the trust, and would
prohibit these administrative costs
from exceeding 10% of the total trust moneys.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no yes
. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares the
following:
(a) An analysis of data collected by the United States government
in March 2008, about insurance coverage in the prior calendar year,
found that 33.2 percent of all immigrants did not have health
insurance compared to 12.7 percent of native-born Americans.
(b) Immigrants account for 27.1 percent of all those without
health insurance. Immigrants are 12.5 percent of the nation's total
population.
(c) Lack of health insurance is a significant problem, even for
long-time immigrant residents. Among immigrants who arrived in the
country in the 1980s, 28.7 percent lacked health insurance in 2007.
(d) The high level of uninsured amongst the immigrant population
means that they often have jobs that do not provide insurance while
their low incomes make private insurance too expensive.
(e) California is home to almost one-third of all immigrants in
the United States.
(f) Many of these immigrants are much more likely to work in small
business, agriculture, labor, cleaning or repair, and sales,
technology, and administration industries.
(g) In 2010, 7 million individuals or 21.5 percent of California's
population was uninsured, with adults comprising 86 percent of the
uninsured.
(h) Based on an analysis by the University of California, Los
Angeles, Center for Health Policy Research, the federal Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA),
(PPACA) will reduce California's eligible uninsured population
to 2.72 million by 2019.
(i) A report by the Central Coast Health Network in 2012 found
that between 300,000 and 1 million farmworkers in California will
remain uninsured under the PPACA because of their ineligibility to
participate in the program and their lack of sufficient income.
(j) Based on the annual income earned by many workers in small
business, agriculture, restaurants, sales, and service industries in
California, these workers will not be covered by the PPACA and
expansion of Medicaid.
SEC. 2. Section 124557 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
124557. (a) The following definitions apply for purposes of this
section:
(1) "Contributing employer" means a person who employs an
individual who is ineligible to receive health care coverage under
state or federal programs and contributes money to the Uncovered
Worker Health Trust Fund.
(2) "Nonprofit community health center" means a community clinic
or free clinic, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 1204.
(2)
(3) "Trust" means the Uncovered Worker Health Trust
Fund.
(3)
(4) "Uncovered worker" means an individual who
does not have health care coverage and is ineligible to receive
health care coverage beyond emergency and pregnancy services
under state or federal programs , including,
but not limited to, Medi-Cal or other coverage under the federal
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148),
and is working in the state for an employer who contributes
money to the Uncovered Worker Health Trust Fund.
(b) There is hereby created the Uncovered Worker Health Trust Fund
for the purpose of providing comprehensive health insurance
coverage primary health care services to
uncovered workers. Voluntary contributions may be deposited into the
trust from the following sources:
(1) Private donors.
(2) Charitable and philanthropic organizations.
(3) Contributing employers.
(c) The department shall, on or before January 1, 2015,
March 1, 2015, prepare and make available an
application form for nonprofit community health centers to use in
requesting moneys from the trust. The department shall include in the
application form a memorandum of understanding that contains space
for the following information, in addition to any other data the
department deems relevant:
(1) The name of the contributing employer.
(2) The number of uncovered workers that will be employed by the
contributing employer.
(3) The length of time that uncovered workers will be employed by
the contributing employer and the time that those workers will
continue to require health care services.
(4) The estimated cost of providing health care services to the
contributing employer's uncovered workers.
(d) Nonprofit community health centers applying for moneys from
the trust shall submit the application to the department.
(e) Moneys from the trust Notwithstanding
Section 13340 of the Government Code, moneys from the trust are
continuously appropriated to the department, and shall be
allocated to participating nonprofit community health centers no
later than July 1, 2015, unless the department determines that the
trust has an insufficient balance to carry out the requirements of
this section, in which case the department may delay implementation
until the trust has a balance of one million dollars ($1,000,000) or
more.
(1) The Primary Health Care Services Branch
Primary, Rural, and Indian Health Division of the
department, through its the authority of the
Rural Health Clinic Program, shall distribute moneys from the
trust to nonprofit community health centers to provide comprehensive
primary health care services, including preventive mental
health and dental care, to uncovered workers.
(2) The department shall allocate moneys from the trust to
nonprofit community health centers based on the number of uncovered
workers to be served, the length of time the uncovered worker will be
employed by the contributing employer, geographical location, and
any other criteria developed by the department in consultation with
contributing employers and nonprofit community health centers.
(f) (1) The department shall publish a list of contributing
employers and shall make that list available to nonprofit community
health centers that serve uncovered workers.
(2)
(f) The department shall publish a list of nonprofit
community clinics health centers
located in the proximity of, and accessible to, uncovered workers and
shall provide that list to contributing employers.
(g) Nonprofit community health centers shall
may utilize mobile medical units or provide transportation
to uncovered workers who reside or are employed in geographical
areas that make access to clinic sites difficult.
(h) The cost to the department of administering the trust shall be
provided from the trust. Administrative costs shall not exceed 10
percent of the total moneys in the trust.
(i) Nothing in this act shall detract, impede, or violate any
provision of the PPACA.
