Hep B Bill Moves to Senate
February 6, 2008
SACRAMENTO — By the time you finish reading this article, four people will lose their lives to hepatitis B.
Fortunately, political leaders like Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, are creating policies to change such disturbing statistics. On Tuesday, Jan. 29, legislation authored by Ma moved off the California Assembly floor by a vote of 46-16 and is now headed to the California state Senate.
Ma’s Hepatitis B Bill, AB 158, requires the Department of Health Care Services to establish a hepatitis B prevention and management program within its Office of Multicultural Health. The program (the Hepatitis B Prevention and Management Pilot Program Fund) would provide matching grants to public and nonprofit organizations in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area for the purposes of providing culturally and language appropriate public awareness, according to the bill.
AB 158 also addresses the lack of Medi-Cal coverage for nondisabled, chronic hepatitis B patients. If passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, AB 158 will extend Medi-Cal coverage to individuals infected with chronic hepatitis B and provide treatment before they become disabled, beginning in January 2009. Currently, individuals with chronic hepatitis B are not eligible for Medi-Cal benefits. Underinsured and noninsured individuals must wait until they are disabled for Medi-Cal coverage.
As an asymptomatic virus, hepatitis B is also known as the “silent killer,” because a person may not experience any symptoms. By the time symptoms such as abdominal pain, distension or jaundice (dark urine and yellow discoloration of the skin or eyes) appear, it is often too late for treatment to be effective, according to the Asian Liver Center at Stanford University’s 2007 Physician Guide.
“This bill is necessary to help individuals with chronic hepatitis receive necessary care before they become disabled,” Ma explains. “Early disease management and treatment are the keys to saving lives and saving limited health care dollars. By expanding Medi-Cal eligibility to nondisabled individuals with chronic hepatitis B, the state avoids the high costs of treating advanced liver disease, including the expense of liver transplantation.”
For more information regarding the progress of this bill, visit www.sen.ca.gov. Click on the legislation link and search for AB 158.
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