Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The San Francisco Examiner - Monday, Oct. 20, 1997 - Page A 14
Examiner Editorial Writer
Wilson couldn't see past a couple of relatively trivial problems: a difference from federal policy that might leave the state paying the whole cost of the program and "ambiguities that would make it difficult to implement and subject to litigation."
The federal government, it happens, is considering its own pilot program to help more people on Medicaid get the new life-saving drugs, and might have found its way to partnership with California in the effort. Wilson's worry about ambiguity and potential litigation could have been addressed without hurting the cause of people fighting their way back to productive lives.
The legislation was pushed through to lopsided passage in the Assembly (unanimous) and Senate (only eight no votes) by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco.
To encourage HIV-positive patients to return to work - thanks to the use of protease inhibitors in combination with other drugs - the first $2,500 of monthly earnings would have been exempted from Medi-Cal income accounting for the first six months. This would help AIDS-threatened citizens, whose medication can cost $1,800 a month, to get back on their feet economically and qualify for job-based health insurance. Now, faced with a sudden cut-off of Medi-Cal coverage, they are deterred from working again.
Though the liberalized Medi-Cal rule would cost the state something (an Assembly analysis said $7.4 million; the Senate, $19 million), this would be offset by the contributions of working AIDS patients to state and local tax coffers.
Migden plans to address the governor's concerns when she reintroduces the measure next session. State and federal bureaucrats, she thinks, can work out arrangements to meet Medicaid requirements and take some of the load off the state's funding of medical care for the poor. This is the only way to get maximum benefit from the promising new AIDS-virus treatments.
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