A multi-billion-dollar fiscal gap has caused California to seek ways to reduce the cost of health insurance coverage for low-income working families. Implementing premium assistance to help low-income workers enroll their families in employment-based coverage could:

• save the State money on current medi-Cal eligibles,
• cover some additional parents at no additional cost to the State,
• put in place the infrastructure necessary to maintain employer coverage levels and reduce "crowd-out" effects if and when Healthy Families would eventually be expanded to cover parents, and
• provide a platform that counties (that have or could raise funds to match federal funds) could potentially use to leverage low-cost coverage for low-income families.