State cuts to health, welfare programs inflict pain

With poverty rates at nearly 20%, Valley will see a human toll.

Published online on Monday, Aug. 03, 2009

What will $3.3 billion in cuts to state health and welfare programs mean for the Valley?

Children will lose health insurance. Fragile mental health programs will take another hit. Counties will have less money to investigate child abuse and pay foster homes.

The list goes on.

In the Valley -- where poverty rates hover near 20% -- the cuts will take a serious toll, said one economist. "The ripple effect is enormous," said Joseph Penbera, who teaches at California State University, Fresno.

"You're going to see some extremely negative impacts."

Lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently approved the reductions as part of $16 billion in spending cuts to help close the state's $24 billion budget hole for 2009-10.

Some of the welfare savings will come in the form of new anti-fraud rules, which the governor says are needed to reduce waste and abuse. But other cuts will scale back -- or eliminate -- aid that social service advocates say many residents need amid the worst recession in years.

Here's a closer look at the reductions in general fund spending for several key programs, which also draw federal money. In some cases, the reductions come on top of budget cuts approved by lawmakers in February.

CalWORKS

The budget slashes $510 million, to $2 billion, from the welfare-to-work program, including child care and employment help for recipients.

In the Valley: The cuts eliminate child care for Welfare-to-Work recipients who have a child under age 2 or two children under age 6. As a result, those adults will be exempt from work training and job-hunting activities.

Fresno County is trying to determine how many of the 12,125 county residents in the program will be affected, said Steven Rodriguez, deputy director of the Department of Employment and Temporary Assistance.

The cuts also affect back-to-work support services, such as mental health and drug and alcohol rehabilitation for "people who need to fix problems before they get back to work," said John Davis, director of Tulare County's Health and Human Services Agency.

A possible rationale by the state for the cuts, Davis said: "There aren't any jobs so why should we be spending any money getting people ready for work?"

Children's health insurance

The budget cuts Healthy Families by $179 million, to $225 million. Advocates say 900,000 children will be denied entry or removed from the Healthy Families program, designed to insure children in poor families whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medi-Cal. State officials are soliciting donations from private groups to replace some of the cuts.

In the Valley: Fresno County's First 5 Commission may be able to help about 400 children up to age 5 with coverage, said Kendra Rogers, deputy director.

But the cuts are expected to affect thousands. A total of 9,337 children in Fresno County would be denied coverage in this fiscal year and another 5,435 would be reduced in 2010, according to child health advocates. In Tulare County, 5,635 children would be denied coverage and 3,457 would be let go.

The cuts affect parents like May Blia Ly of Fresno. Her twin 17-year-old sons and 13-year-old daughter have been put on the Healthy Families waiting list.

Ly sought coverage for her children when she was laid off from a nonprofit agency at the end of May. It would cost about $300 a month to add the children to her husband's insurance, Ly said. Healthy Families would have cost them $27 a month. "It takes both of us working full-time jobs to make ends meet," she said.