Proposed Budget Would Cut Medi-Cal Rates by 10%
[Posted 01/15/04]

The Schwarzenegger administration Friday released its proposed 2004-2005 budget—which includes a 10 percent cut to Medi-Cal provider rates and caps enrollment for Healthy Families and other health and welfare programs.

Californians United for Quality Health—the CMA-led coalition of physicians, patients, and consumer and health care advocates—continues to work hard to change this short sighted approach to health care and teach the administration that the proposed cuts will cost the state and businesses more than they will save. Not only will the state forfeit hundreds of millions in federal matching dollars, but the cuts will also drive up taxes as Medi-Cal patients who cannot find a physician seek more expensive care in already overwhelmed emergency rooms. In addition, the cuts will increase the number of uninsured using emergency rooms, driving up health insurance premiums as providers shift the cost of this care to others.

The 10 percent Medi-Cal cut mimics the one proposed by Governor Gray Davis last year. Gov. Davis’s cut was reduced by the legislature to 5 percent and would have gone into effect on January 1, had CMA not won an injunction in federal court in December. In granting the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge David Levy said that the state of California failed to consider how the cut would affect access to care for the more than 6 million poor, disabled, elderly and children whose health care is provided by Medi-Cal. CMA believes the Schwarzenegger cuts will also be struck down.

Contact: Heather Campbell, 916/444-5532 or hcampbell@cmanet.org.