CA governator should re-think infant formula ban

Open letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger:

[ governor [at] governor.CA.gov ]

In your name, Sandra Shewry, director of California Department of Health Services,
sends this notice to Medi-Cal beneficiaries:

"Effective June 1, 2006, Medi-Cal will not pay for regular infant formula
because it is regular food for normal healthy infants. Federal and State requirements
prevent payment for household items and regular food."

That memo is based on false assumptions.

*** Formula is NOT "regular food" (that is, healthy and proper food)
"for normal healthy infants". ***

Infant formula is a pathetically poor substitute for
human milk from a healthy woman.

Human milk contains antibodies which protect a newborn from diseases; while breast-feeding builds emotional bonds between infant and mother. ( For more info on the vast superiority of human milk over artificial formula, please consult La Leche League, the World Health Organization, etc. )

Altho formula is bad for most "normal healthy infants",
it is medically necessary for some other infants.
Therefor it MUST be available in special cases, at least by prescription.

Formula is needed (a) for some abnormal or unhealthy infants, as implied by Shewry;
and (b) for normal healthy infants whose mothers cannot breast-feed them.


Many Medi-Cal mothers may themselves be too physically or mentally ill to nurse their babies; or may be infected with HIV, etc.; or may be employed, frequently absent,
or otherwise unable to breast-feed regularly.

I ask you to delay Shewry's order until 10 December 2006 (Human Right Day).
This will give her time to rewrite it, so as to provide formula when it's REALLY needed.

Meanwhile, I encourage Medi-Cal parents or guardians to file appeals,
ASAP, by writing to:
California State Department of Social Services
State Hearings Division
P.O. Box 944243
Mail Station 19-37
Sacramento, CA 95814

Sincerely,
T. B. Liberty
San Francisco, CA
29 March 2006

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