AEGiS-SC: Budget Crisis In California Health Care

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Budget Crisis In California Health Care

San Francisco Chronicle - May 15, 2008
Elizabeth Fernandez

PROPOSAL: The budget would cut $1.04 billion from health and human services that were proposed in January's budget for a total reduction of $3.4 billion. Under a $1.1 billion cut to Medi-Cal - which serves 6.6 million people in the state - tens of thousands of poor residents would receive fewer medical services.

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU: Nearly 40,000 poor working parents, who now receive comprehensive Medi-Cal coverage, would have their benefits reduced if they earn more than about $12,000 a year for a family of three. Fewer doctors would be willing to treat Medi-Cal patients because of a 10 percent cut in reimbursement rates. Hospitals face huge losses from lower reimbursement rates. Illegal immigrants would be eligible for emergency care only during a month in which they have an emergency medical condition. For people with HIV, some types of medications would be eliminated from the drug-assistance program.

REACTION: "These are anti-immigrant provisions," said Carmella Castellan-Garcia, president of the California Primary Care Association, which represents clinics that treat more than half a million people in the Bay Area. Richard Frankenstein, president of the California Medical Association, which is part of a lawsuit to block the Medi-Cal reductions, says the cuts would "shut doctors' offices, hospitals, pharmacies and clinics ... across California."

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