Three families' stories put a face on the pain of California budget cuts

Dependent on the Healthy Families, CalWorks and Cal Grants programs, they will face heartbreaking choices if the programs are victims of state's budget crisis.

May 23, 2009

California officials are considering significant cuts to major programs to close the state's budget deficit. Among them: Healthy Families, which provides youth medical coverage; CalWorks, which serves poor families with children; and Cal Grants college loans. Here are some of the people who would be hit by the cuts:

Wondering how to pay their son's medical bills

In the noisy atrium of the Eisner Pediatric and Family Medical Center on Friday, Ubaldo Tlatoa and his wife struggled to keep their arms around their rambunctious son Kevin, who was hopping up and down on the benches as they waited to see a doctor.

Kevin, 6, was losing his hearing. The state's Healthy Families insurance program for the working poor was covering most of the cost of the visit.

"It's a blessing," Tlatoa, 37, said in Spanish that was translated by a medical center staffer.

Tlatoa makes about $3,000 a month as a construction worker, but his company considers him an independent contractor and does not provide medical insurance.

He makes too much money to get coverage through Medi-Cal, but said he would struggle to pay for private insurance. So he and his wife have no coverage, but at least with the state plan they can pay $27 a month, with $5 co-pays, to cover their three sons. "Not having insurance is a great fear that I live with every day," Tlatoa said.

Tlatoa shrugs and looks into the distance when he thinks about what he will do if the state eliminates the Healthy Families program.

Tlatoa doesn't like his choices: taking Kevin to a county emergency room that might not understand his medical history, or taking a lower-paying job to qualify for Medi-Cal.

In the exam room, Dr. Elizabeth Ford was direct with Kevin's parents. "He needs surgery," she said.

-- Jia-Rui Chong 'It would be chaos'

Eight months ago, Reina Isabel Martinez's contract job as a maintenance worker at a Studio City hotel ended. Martinez, 39, was used to going from job to job. But as the economy shuddered, jobs dried up and she couldn't find another one. Not unless she took a night job, which the single mother said she couldn't do with two teenage children at home.

Unable to make her $1,400 rent for a South Los Angeles apartment, Martinez was evicted and moved to El Sereno. She lived on food stamps and $104 a week unemployment checks, which ended two months ago. Her husband, who had left three years ago, provided no help. Last month, she applied for welfare.

Through Cal Works, she got $723 a month for herself and two children, but went to a welfare office in Lincoln Heights on Friday after she said it was reduced to $237. Martinez said there was confusion about whether she was still getting unemployment. Now she said she dreads that social service programs like these would be slashed entirely. "It would be chaos," she said.

Martinez said her 13-year-old son, Christopher, was invited to a school trip to Santa Catalina Island for students who got good grades. But she said she doubted that she could afford the $165 cost.

"They take all the good students, the ones with the really good grades, and he's one of them," Martinez said proudly inside the Lincoln Heights welfare office. "He's a very smart boy. But I can't pay it."

-- Hector Becerra Trying to make the numbers add up

Robin Chavarria's father works from sunrise to sundown as a landscaper. His mother does odd jobs when she can find them, which lately has been never. "They work really hard to support us, feed us, clothe us, shelter us and send us to school to the extent that they can," said Robin, a senior at Eagle Rock High School, speaking for himself and his 10-year-old brother.

He figures his parents, both legal immigrants from Central America, earn about $20,000 a year, or about $6,000 less than the cost of attending UC Santa Barbara, where Robin has been accepted this fall. "So obviously," he said, "getting financial aid was a huge factor in my deciding to go to UC."

Robin, 17, who wants to study political science and become a lawyer, recently got a letter offering him $5,000 a year in Cal Grant funding. Along with a federal Pell Grant, some scholarship money from the University of California, loans and work-study income, Robin figured that he would be able to manage UC Santa Barbara.

Now he's not so sure.

"For the Cal Grant to be taken away would represent a huge burden," he said.

He figures he would have three options: apply for more loans; increase the number of hours he works while attending school; or forget about UC and go to community college. He still considers himself lucky, but is distressed by what he sees happening to California's budget. "I think in times of economic recession, education should be the safe haven," he said. "Because if you take away the Cal Grants, you're taking away people's dreams."

-- Mitchell Landsberg hector.becerra@latimes.com

jia-rui.chong@latimes.com

mitchell.landsberg @latimes.com