Tag: Medi-Cal Expansion

  • Advocates Push to Expand California Welfare Program

    By Kenny Goldberg First step children. Next step adults. That’s what advocates of the poor say after state lawmakers recently agreed to extend Medi-Cal benefits to the children of immigrants who are living here illegally. Lawmakers have appropriated $40 million in the new state budget to give Medi-Cal coverage to some 170,000 immigrant children. Advocates…

  • Complaints Alleging Poor Access to Care Prompt Medi-Cal Audit

    By Kenny Goldberg More than 7 million people who have Medi-Cal coverage are enrolled in managed care plans. Lawmakers have ordered an audit because they say they’ve received numerous complaints from Medi-Cal patients who are having trouble getting care. California health officials say they haven’t found many problems. But a recent examination by the California…

  • State Officials Pledge to Reduce Medi-Cal Backlog

    By Kenny Goldberg California officials have laid out their plans to cut a backlog of Medi-Cal applications in a letter to the federal government. Officials say they’re concentrating on fixing computer problems that have hindered the efforts of county eligibility workers to communicate with the state’s new healthcare enrollment system. Medi-Cal applications are supposed to…

  • More Money for Medi-Cal, But Doctors’ Pay Cut Remains

    By Kenny Goldberg Thanks to Obamacare, more than 2 million additional Californians have signed up for Medi-Cal since last October. But it can be tough to find a doctor willing to treat them. That’s because the state cut the Medi-Cal pay rate by 10 percent, when California was in the depths of the recession. Anthony…

  • California Lawmakers Face Tight Deadline to Tackle Health Reform

    By Kenny Goldberg California lawmakers are up against a tight deadline to get the state ready for the full rollout of healthcare reform. A variety of major decisions need to be made quickly. States are required to launch their new online insurance marketplaces by January 2014. But California wants to open registration next October. Anthony…