New California budget will eliminate Healthy Families program

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California Gov. Jerry Brown

Governor Jerry Brown and California legislators reached a decision yesterday on how to close the state?s $15.7 billion budget deficit.

Among the cuts that have angered various groups is the plan to axe the Healthy Families medical program and move the 880,000 low-income children the program serves to Medi-Cal over the next three years. Many health advocates argue Healthy Families is a much higher quality program partly because it pays doctors and health care providers better.

When the budget is approved next week, what will this mean for the state?s disadvantaged children? And what will it mean for the doctors and health care professionals who provide them with care?

Dylan Roby, Director of the Health Economics and Evaluation Research Program at UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; Assistant Professor in UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

Wendy Lazarus, Co-President and Founder, The Children?s Partnership

Dr. Theodore Mazer, MD, Chair of California Medical Association?s Technical

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