Los Los Angeles, CA

Peter Manzo, President & CEO of United Ways of California today issued the following statement in response to Governor Schwarzenegger’s signing of AB 1422, a bipartisan bill passed through the Legislature on September 3, 2009, aimed at restoring nearly $100 million previously cut from the Healthy Families Program, California’s low- and no-cost health insurance program for children:  

“With the Governor’s signature of AB 1422 today, nearly 1 million California children will now maintain access to their health coverage.  The move couldn’t come at a more critical time, as 70,000 children had been denied access to Healthy Families and health coverage since July and hundreds of thousands more had been expected to lose access to coverage this year.      

“This was truly a bi-partisan effort that is a win-win for California kids and taxpayers.  The bill not only protects the health of 1 million children, but does so without raising any costs on healthcare consumers.  Instead, it leverages federal funds to provide health care to children and brings more federal dollars back home to our state where there are desperately needed.  

“AB 1422 will help protect children and the entire population from the H1N1 virus, which is expected to hit children especially hard this fall when they return to school.

“We commend the Legislature and Governor for showing leadership on this issue and protecting kids in our state.  We hope our state leaders will continue to make kids a priority next year as United Ways of California and others throughout the state work to ensure that no California child goes without health coverage.”