Courtesy-Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle
INDIANAPOLIS – The third and final meeting of the Indiana General Assembly’s interim committee on Public Health, Behavioral Health, and Human Services has concluded with a unanimous vote to approve a draft report of recommendations. That report is not yet available for public review.
Much of the final report focused on childcare testimony from an August meeting, where stakeholders urged the legislature to address child care ‘deserts,’ invest in a comprehensive system, and increase employee wages.
Sen. Ed Charbonneau warned that the upcoming session, set to start in January, wasn’t a budget session so recommendations didn’t include dollar amounts.
“In order to get recommendations that we need to be able to act on … an increase in funding couldn’t happen,” Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, said in committee Wednesday.
Specifically, lawmakers spoke about the limitations of the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), which subsidizes care for families but often includes a copay that may cost more than the family can afford.
“I was approached by someone who has CCDF vouchers and … they can’t meet the copay requirements. Even if they could meet copay requirements, there aren’t enough providers that accept CCDF vouchers,” said Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis.
“The current crisis is not just accessibility and affordability. There just aren’t people in these jobs. So many grants will pay for the program but the funds are not available to help address the issue of what people are taking home,” said Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington. “We’ve captured so much in the report but that isn’t called out.”
Charbonneau, the committee co-chair, said he didn’t want the report to get too far into specifics.
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