A bill introduced last week in the California legislature would provide health insurance for every uninsured child in the state.
The “100 Percent Campaign” is being pushed by several advocacy groups, including the Washington-based Children’s Defense Fund, and Children Now, which is headquartered in Oakland, Calif.
Buoyed by a March poll that showed nearly 80 percent of state residents support the idea, two legislators introduced bills in each chamber of the legislature last week that would phase in over several years health coverage to an estimated 1 million children in the state who do not have any form of health coverage.
An analysis by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that insuring those children would cost the state between $119 million and $330 million each year.