The Legislature continues to recognize the essential role that hospitals play in serving the state’s MediCal beneficiaries. To that end, it has been, and remains, the intent of the Legislature to improve funding for hospitals and obtain all available federal funds to make supplemental Medi-Cal payments to hospitals. It is the intent of the Legislature that funding provided to hospitals through a hospital quality assurance fee be continued with the goal of increasing access to care and improving hospital reimbursement through supplemental Medi-Cal payments to hospitals. It is the intent of the Legislature to recognize the fundamental structure of the components used to develop a successful hospital quality assurance fee program. It is the intent of the Legislature to impose a quality assurance fee to be paid by hospitals, which would be used to increase federal financial participation in order to make supplemental Medi-Cal payments to hospitals, and to help pay for health care coverage for low-income children.