    |
|||||
Medi-Cal Optional Benefits After months of uncertainty, California finally has a signed budget. However, the final budget may have come at a cost that weighs too heavily on the state’s most vulnerable population and those organizations serving them by placing Medi-Cal optional benefits in jeopardy of being eliminated. Medi-Cal optional benefits, which include services such as adult dental, psychology and chiropractic, have been placed in a precarious situation as their fate has been tied to a federal funding “trigger.” On March 27, 2009, the Director of Finance Michael Genest and State Treasurer Bill Lockyer announced to the Governor and Legislative leaders their determination that California will not receive additional Federal funds to the amount of $10B, which is needed to support the continuation of these valuable Medi-Cal optional benefits. The determination that stimulus funding will fall short of this arbitrarily set amount will cause a domino effect that will threaten the integrity of the state’s health care safety net by bringing Medi-Cal reimbursement for these and other optional benefits to a halt on July 1, 2009. In his letter to the Governor and Legislature, Bill Lockyer underscored the importance of continuing adult dental and in-home support services, and urged to legislature to reconsider these programmatic cuts, stating that the human and fiscal cost outweighed the benefits The effects of the possible cuts to optional benefits will be felt in many ways by organizations such as Family HealthCare Network, the people most vulnerable in our communities, and all state tax payers. Access to primary care will be compromised and it is this lack of access that will result in a heavy financial burden and cost to the state tax payer as individuals are forced to rely on emergency rooms for their dental and medical needs. The prudent and most logical approach for the Governor to take is to not threaten the viability of safety net health care providers or the people they serve, but to support the excellent cost effective care provided by these organizations. When everything is considered, it is evident that cutting the Medi-Cal optional benefits is not an option that Californian’s can afford. Please contact the Governor’s office and let him know that you support the continuation of these very valuable services in a cost-effective setting and he should not “pull the trigger” on eliminating these services as Medi-Cal benefits. Harry Foster can be reached by e-mail at hfoster@fhcn.org Article posted on 4/9/09
|
|||||
