G-CAPP Policy and Advocacy News

G-CAPP's 2007 Legislative Reception
A large group of state legislators, state officials, advocates and young people attended G-CAPP's 2007 Legislative Reception last week to witness the official launch of the statewide 15 by 15 teen pregnancy prevention goal, a call to action to reduce the teen pregnancy rate in Georgia an additional 15 % by year 2015.

Dr. Stuart Brown, Director of Georgia's Division of Public Health, spoke in support of the 15 by 15 goal and announced that the Department of Human Resources does not plan to make cuts to the existing Adolescent Health and Youth Development system in our state, including the youth development coordinator positions mentioned in previous G-CAPP Policy and Advocacy Updates, in the fiscal year 2008 budget. Thank you to everyone who contacted state legislators and officials about this important issue in recent weeks.

2007 Georgia General Assembly
The 2007 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly convened today for Day 18 of the 40-day Session. We will provide updates on a weekly basis during the session regarding bills and issues that affect adolescents and public health.

PeachCare Update
Georgia's PeachCare for Kids program, the state's health insurance program for children in low-income, working families, is still facing a $131 million federal funding shortfall and immediate action is required to ensure that children do not lose coverage.

Because Congress has not yet acted to fill the gap, the Georgia Department of Community Health has announced that it is freezing enrollment in PeachCare as of March 11th, and that any child whose premium is not paid on time will lose coverage. A Senate task force has been created to discuss solutions to the shortfall, which reportedly could include reducing benefits for participants. Also, a bill has been introduced, HB 340 (Rep. Glenn Richardson, 19th), that would revise the threshold income for eligibility for PeachCare from 235 percent to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which would decrease the number of children eligible for PeachCare by over 13,000. The bill is before the House Health and Human Services Committee.

TAKE ACTION: While we wait for a long term solution from Congress, the Georgia General Assembly can act to change Georgia law to allow the state to fund a temporary safety net for the highly-successful and cost-effective PeachCare program. Contact your state legislators and ask them to act quickly to protect healthcare coverage for low income kids without reducing enrollment or increasing eligibility requirements.

Track Legislation
For the latest updates on legislation, visit the General Assembly web site and search by the bill number in the top right hand corner of the page. You may also find information for contacting bill sponsors and other legislators on the General Assembly web site, or find your legislators here. To follow legislative issues that G-CAPP is working on, click here.

G-CAPP Fast Fact
In Georgia in 2005, 12% of children under the age of 18, or over 293,000 children, were uninsured.

Source:
Kaiser Family Foundation