2010-09-05 | Welcome
Posted by Dave Cavenaugh   04-01-2008 WASHINGTON UPDATE
Medicaid (Medi-Cal), Genetics Program, AIDS Care on the block.
California Cuts Threaten Key Programs!!

 

Recently enacted cuts in California state health and other programs threaten access to care for those dependent on Medicaid and other state programs. The governor proposed in February an across-the-board 10% cut in all areas of the state budget, effective with the beginning of the new fiscal year July 1. Using the threat of a possible downgrade in the state’s bond ratings from Wall Street, he persuaded the legislature to quickly approve his proposal with few modifications. COTT has been assisting in the substantial efforts now going on in the state to urge Legislators to reconsider these cuts, both in their severity and in their blind application across even programs dealing with life-threatening situations. We have given testimony before the State Legislature's Health Committee in Sacramento, and met with several key Budget Committee offices.


More advocacy work will be needed to achieve success at giving the legislators the commitment to undo their rushed consent to the Governor's proposed cuts. Any such cuts must be targeted in a way that exempts services to health communities like ours.


Key legislators tell us that for the most part members of both the Governor's party and the Majority party are by now well aware of the dire implications of the cuts, but need to see evidence from their home district constituencies of public outcry against these threatened services reductions before they can take the strong stands needed to undo what has been approved and block further cuts. Californians: Mobilize!! your resources for visible, local statements (op-ed, etc.) and events (rallies or speeches at other events, with media). Contact Legislators using this link to register  your concerns and, particularly, convey how these cuts would affect you.  COTT is working closely with the Hemophilia Council of California (510-234-8655) on this campaign; contact either organization for more information. COTT is next due to speak to community members on this at the Advocacy Day being held by the Hemophilia Association of SoCal (888-371-4123) later this month in Los Angeles.


Special Note for those outside of California: The California Medicaid program (Medi-Cal) serves one-fifth of all Medicaid clients in the country. Other states' Medicaid programs are also in fiscal crisis.  If California’s cuts are the deepest, that will quickly become the norm across the land.

Contacting Legislators:

 

:: Give your name, your city/town, and your type of hemophilia.

:: Explain the high monthly cost of hemophilia care.

:: Use some or all of the discussion points below, as well as your own:

> One-half of our community nationwide were infected through their medications with HIV/AIDS during the 1980s, and many were co-infected with hepatitis C. We are still recovering from this community-wide devastation.


 > State and national hemophilia organizations strongly oppose these blind cuts and support the alternative proposal put forth by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

> Insurance-based reductions in care are forcing some onto last-resort public programs; with the Governor’s budget, those programs will not be there for them.
 
> Health security is a critical issue to stability in a young family with hemophilia. For many, the outlook for the future is deteriorating rapidly.

> Such upheaval -- going without treatment -- clearly impacts the health of the child with hemophilia negatively, leading to higher costs for treatment, not savings.


> Such poor health outcomes are far from the desired path of improvements in health status we have seen, such as less joint damage, continued mobility, and a greater ability to remain a productive citizen of California.

 

:: Personalize the conversation with some examples of costly care / dependence on public programs from your own / your family's / your community's recent experience.

:: At the end of the discussion, give your name and phone number so that you can be re-contacted.  Ask permission to write, call or visit them again as this matter comes to a head over the next few months.

:: Let COTT or other hemophilia organization know about your contact, and your perceptions of the outcome; offer to help identify people in other key districts who should be calling their legislators.

:: Ask as many others as possible around you to also contact their legislators (work, school, church and so forth). Ask people in the hemophilia community elsewhere, including outside of California, to contact

California State Senator Dick Ackerman on

916-651-4033. 

He is the most senior of the governor's Republican party in a heavily Democratic legislature. The job will fall to him to either succeed in holding off opposition to the cuts as passed, or persuade the governor that the legislature will not be denied and the cuts must be reduced or eliminated in areas like health.

 
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