California legislators may have reached an agreement to prevent half a million kids from being cut from the state's Healthy Families public health insurance plan.
Healthy Families is low cost insurance that provides health, dental and vision coverage to California children who do not have insurance and do not qualify for no-cost Medi-Cal.
According to the Sacramento Bee, a bill currently moving through the state Senate would raise money for Healthy Families by having participating families share more of the costs of coverage and extending a gross premiums tax on companies that manage Medi-Cal plans.
Insurers already pay a state tax that will end Oct. 1 because it doesn't match new federal guidelines. The bill, which passed a state Senate subcommittee with only one dissenting vote, would lower those insurance managers' gross premiums tax to 2 percent from the current 5 percent.
The California Association of Health Plans and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) also support the bill.
Healthy Families had its funding slashed by $178 million during California's state budget revisions last April.