WOODLAND HILLS—California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law ABX1 21, authored by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills), extending a tax placed on managed health care organizations.

The money is going towards funding Healthy Families, serving approximately 870,000 children statewide, the bill staves off a possible $130 million shortfall of state funds, with that total vaulting to $390 million when factoring in a federal match of 2 to 1. The state was considering serious enrollment cuts as non-passage of the bill would have cut 37 percent of Healthy Families’ total budget.

White House, Washington DC.

Richard Figueroa, a board member of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB), the entity which oversees Healthy Families was quoted saying, “This is great news for California’s lower income children,” he continued, saying, “Now we can continue providing necessary services for this population. We’re pleased the Legislature passed the bill and the governor signed it. It’s the result of a lot of hard work—by health plans, by children’s advocates and by the Legislature, to fund a needed program at a time of great fiscal distress.”

Despite the passage of this bill, MRMIB still has to make up for a deficit totaling around $23 million. Sarah Smith of MRMIB commented on the shortfall saying, “We are investigating the options, and we still don’t know how much of a deficit we’re really looking at,” she went on to say, “We’re working with the department of Finance, revising our fiscal estimates, and to come up with ways to close that deficit.”

It was also noted by Smith that the issue of the deficit and possible solutions for that issue will be presented on October 19, at the next MRMIB meeting. To this, Figueroa said, “There is a lot to figure out between now and then, we don’t really know what the outcome will be, it’s still a little early,” he went on to say, “We’re still awaiting additional input from state and federal sources.”

“Absent this funding, the program would have been forced to take health care away from three hundred thousand children to avoid total collapse,” said Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (D-San Fernando Valley). “This scary situation had a simple solution but it took until the last minute to get past blind anti-tax purity and obtain the bipartisan support needed to do right by these kids. We narrowly avoided disaster.”