Legislation We Support
APIAHF continues to support legislation that will improve the health status of California's AAPI residents. Below are summaries of current California bills that we endorse. Please click on the corresponding links to view the letters of support that APIAHF sent to legislators.
AB 75 (Frommer and Chan)
As prescription drug prices soar, more and more Californians are struggling to cover the costs of needed medications. AB 75 would provide discounted drug prices to thousands of low–income and medically underinsured Californians. AB 75 includes several key provisions that are critical to the success of a drug discount card program.
AB 75 would help residents with high medical bills. Eligibility includes residents who earn less than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level, as well as those who spend a significant portion of their family earnings on medical expenses. Families who spend at least 5 percent of their family income on prescription drugs or 15 percent of their income on medical expenses would be eligible for the drug discount card.
AB 75 targets Medicaid Best Price as a benchmark for discounts from the drug companies. AB 75 calls on DHS to seek discounts from the drug companies comparable to the discounts received by Medicaid. Given the complexity of pricing structures within the drug industry, many of which are controlled by drug companies, it is critical that a drug discount program target a well–known, recognizable benchmark for drug discounts.
AB 75 permits, but does not require, Medicaid prior authorization if drug companies refuse to offer adequate discounts. AB 75 allows DHS to place a medication on “prior authorization” for Medi-Cal if a drug company fails to provide adequate discounts to the discount card program. As it has done in Maine, this provision will help to prevent drug companies from refusing to offer discounts through the drug discount program.
AB 680 (Chan)
In California, one in four children – or nearly 1.6 million students – in the K-12 educational system is an English learner. Virtually all of these children come from homes where English is not the primary language. Without adequate translated materials and notices, limited–English proficient (LEP) parents are precluded from communicating with educators and locked out of their children's education – leaving their children to struggle in school by themselves. Early and sustained parental involvement in children's education is the key for high levels of academic achievement and to success throughout their lives. Parents, teachers, students, and communities benefit when schools welcome and encourage parents to join them as equal partners in their children's education.
AB 680 would strengthen compliance with Education Code § 48985, which requires schools to translate notices, reports, statements, and records for parents into the primary languages of English learner populations when at least 15 percent of the student population at a given school speak a common primary language other than English. The lack of any mechanism to monitor and enforce compliance with this provision has resulted in haphazard and inconsistent translations across districts.
AB 680 would require school districts to annually provide the California Department of Education with information on the language demographics and translation practices of school sites that meet the 15 percent threshold for translating documents. In addition, federal dollars would be made available through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to establish a competitive grant program, which would provide funding for schools and school districts to translate educational documents for non-English speaking parents and guardians.
AB 772 (Chan and Frommer)
AB 772 would provide affordable health insurance for every child in California. Over 1.3 million children in California – nearly 1 in 7-are uninsured. Children Now, Children's Defense Fund and The Children's Partnership, with primary support from The California Endowment, have joined in a collaborative effort to ensure that all of California's children obtain the health coverage they need to grow up healthy and strong. The bill would create a single umbrella program – California Healthy Kids – to provide health insurance coverage through Healthy Families/Medi-Cal to all uninsured children in California. In addition to expanding eligibility to currently-ineligible children, the bills would make it easier for children to enroll and open more doors to enrolling. The bills include provisions that will:
- Provide health insurance options for every uninsured child in California
- Make it easier for families to enroll and keep their children covered
- Build on the successes of local Children's Health Initiatives (CHI's)
- Create a system of shared responsibility for financing
- Phase in the program on a timetable consistent with responsible management and available resources
AB 794 (Chu)
Existing law does not require disclosure of records relating to the negotiation of health coverage contracts between the state and health plans. For example, contracts with health plans entered into by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (MRMIB) for the Healthy Families Program, the Major Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) and the Access for Infants and Mothers Program (AIM) are not open to public inspection until one year after the contract has been executed, and the portion of the contract containing the rates of payment are not open until three years after the contract has been open to inspection.
AB 794 would further legislative oversight of MRMIB's programs. It would allow the Legislative Analyst's Office to inspect contract rates of health plans entered into with the MRMIB, which currently holds contracts with 41 health, dental and vision plans in the Healthy Families Program. Contracts include rates of payment from the state to health plans, MRMIB's discussions, communications, or any other portion of the negotiations with health plans.
SB 12 (Escutia)
Recent studies have shown that that nearly one–third of Californians are overweight or at risk of being overweight and that African–American, Latino and Asian children were more likely than White children to be overweight or at risk. The incidence of childhood obesity brings with it elevated risk for Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, early maturation, orthopedic problems and a host of other diseases and health concerns. In California, obesity costs an estimated $14.2 billion each year in direct medical expenses and lost productivity.
SB 12 will implement nutrition standards for foods sold on all public school campuses. It helps change the environment in schools by limiting the fat and sugar content of foods sold on public school campuses. This will ensure that low–income students of color will have access to nutritious foods and will not be forced to eat poor quality food because it is all that they can get or afford.
SB 576 (Ortiz)
Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable cause of death in California. SB 576 requires all health plans and health insurers to provide comprehensive, proven, state–of–the–art smoking cessation coverage. Fewer than one in five Californians have insurance that provides this comprehensive coverage. California's diverse communities, which are made up of approximately 4.6 million Asian Americans and 245,934 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders, will greatly benefit from tobacco cessation coverage programs. The smoking prevalence rates are 21.4% for Asian males, 7.8% for Asian females, 32.3% for Pacific Islander males, and 21.4% for Pacific Islander females, which are higher than the general smoking rate of 15% in the state. Among Asian sub–populations in California in 2002, persons of Korean descent had the highest smoking prevalence rate (19.8%), followed by persons of Japanese (14.6%), Filipino (12.6%), and Chinese (8.8%) descent. Many AAPI communities are unaware that health plans can provide comprehensive cessation coverage; however, with the passage of SB 576, more smokers who want to quit will have greater opportunities to do so.
SB 112 (Ortiz)
SB 112 would improve the current system for supporting the flow of refugees to California. The state's current allocation of federal Refugee Employment Services funds benefits only 10-12 counties that receive the largest numbers of refugees, with a formula that is based on the number of refugees on cash assistance. By adjusting this formula, SB 112 would essentially allow federal dollars to match more closely with refugee flows throughout the state. It would represent a more fair distribution of funding throughout California's counties.
For more information, contact the APIAHF Policy Division staff:
Gem Daus, Legislative and Government Affairs Coordinator, GDaus@apiahf.org
