Budget ax likely to fall on 'Healthy Families' healthcare for children

Today's Sacramento Bee carries disturbing news about healthcare for California children:

Governor's budget ax poised over
children's health care programs

To shrink a $24.3 billion deficit, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week asked legislators to make California the first state to eliminate government health coverage for low- to moderate-income children. Schwarzenegger hopes to save $305 million in 2009-10 by closing the state's Healthy Families program, which provides medical, dental and vision care to more than 900,000 children.

The state provides about a third of the program's overall funding, as the federal government pays two dollars for every dollar California spends – funding that would be lost. President Barack Obama made the federal program such a priority that he signed legislation to expand it during his first month in office.

That last point about federal funding for the program is especially troubling, in that if California cuts this spending, the state will not receive what are in effect 'matching funds' to assist the program. The full article is available on the Bee's website at http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1897455.html.