Bill Text: CA AB175 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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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

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BILL NUMBER: AB 175	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 19, 2013

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member V. Manuel Pérez

                        JANUARY 24, 2013

    An act relating to vehicles.   An act to add
Section 124557 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health
care coverage   . 



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 175, as amended, V. Manuel Pérez.  Vehicles: towing and
impoundment: unlicensed drivers.   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 Health Trust Fund for the
purpose of providing health care coverage 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 bill would require that trust moneys, as specified, be
distributed by the Primary Health Care Services Branch of the
department through its 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. The bill would also require the department to provide
those employers with a list of nonprofit community health centers
accessible to workers.  
   This bill would require the department, on or before January 1,
2015, to prepare 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 center applying for
trust moneys to submit the application to the department. The bill
would require the department to distribute trust moneys according to
specified criteria. The bill would require nonprofit community health
centers to utilize mobile medical units and provide transportation
to 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 costs from exceeding 10% of the total trust moneys.
 
   Existing law authorizes a peace officer to impound for 30 days a
vehicle driven by a person who had never been issued a driver's
license. Existing law subjects to forfeiture, and requires the
impoundment of, a vehicle driven by an unlicensed driver who is a
registered owner of the vehicle and who has a previous misdemeanor
conviction of operating a vehicle without a driver's license.
 
   This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact
legislation to prohibit a peace officer from impounding a vehicle
solely on the basis that the driver is unlicensed. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  no
  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), 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 farm workers 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) "Trust" means the Uncovered Worker Health Trust Fund.
   (3) "Uncovered worker" means an individual who is ineligible to
receive health care coverage under state or federal programs 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
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, 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 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 of the department,
through its Rural Health Clinic Program, shall distribute moneys from
the trust to nonprofit community health centers to provide
comprehensive primary health care services, including 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) The department shall publish a list of nonprofit community
clinics located in the proximity of, and accessible to, uncovered
workers and shall provide that list to contributing employers.
   (g) Nonprofit community health centers shall 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.  
  SECTION 1.    It is the intent of the Legislature
to enact legislation to prohibit a peace officer from impounding a
vehicle solely on the basis that the driver is unlicensed.