LOS ANGELES – June 28, 2024 – This week, the legislature passed and Governor Gavin Newsom is in the process of signing a series of budget bills for the 2024-25 fiscal year that reaffirm the state’s commitment to Health4All, while addressing a historic budget deficit. The budget maintains California’s leadership in expanding health care coverage but pulls back from critically needed investments to improve Medi-Cal members’ access to care.
We applaud the Governor and legislature’s decision to preserve the expansion of Medi-Cal, regardless of immigration status, including In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) for all Californians with Medi-Cal. IHSS helps ensure residents with low incomes who are elderly, blind or disabled (including children) get the support they need at home, promoting well-being and reducing the need for expensive out-of-home care. Additionally, the budget retains the optional Medi-Cal acupuncture benefit.
Yet, patients can only obtain Medi-Cal benefits and services if they are able to enroll in the program and keep their coverage each year. The budget preserves funding for the Health Enrollment Navigator for Clinics program to assist patients in getting – and staying – covered but eliminates funding for the county-run Health Enrollment Navigators program.
For coverage to be meaningful, the state must invest in the systems patients rely upon for care. California is grappling with a severe health care workforce shortage. Past budgets invested hundreds of millions of dollars in programs to address the crisis. While this budget preserves funding to prevent disruption to workforce programs already underway – including the Song-Brown Primary Care Residency and Nursing Programs, the Health Professionals Career Opportunity Program, and the California Medicine Scholars Program – it reduces funding for health care training by $746 million over five years.
“Cuts to health care training programs in the coming years will severely impact California’s future health workforce,” said Louise McCarthy, President and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. “In the middle of a crisis, now is the time to build the health workforce California needs to maintain our commitment to creating a more equitable system of care for all patients.”
The budget also pulls back on Equity and Practice Transformation funding. Care transformation is crucial to the state’s efforts under CalAIM to transform Medi-Cal into a more coordinated, person-centered, and equitable health system for all patients, but without resources, essential data and care management systems can be prohibitively expensive for safety net providers.
This year’s budget process underscores the importance of protecting the funding that supports California’s Medi-Cal program. The MCO tax generates billions of dollars of revenue and brings federal resources to the state to invest in the program, including much needed funding for health centers that already operate on razor-thin margins. After proposing to redirect these funds, the Governor reached an agreement with the legislature that preserves some of the revenue for Medi-Cal in the budget for the next fiscal year but delays larger investments until future years. The Protect Our Health Care Initiative on this November’s ballot will extend the MCO tax indefinitely and ensure these critical resources are dedicated to supporting Medi-Cal and improving patient care.
We look forward to continuing our work with the Newsom Administration, the legislature, and our health care partners to strengthen Medi-Cal and advance health care access and equity for all Californians.
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About the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County
Founded in 1994, the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County (CCALAC) is the largest regional association of community health centers in California. Health centers in Los Angeles serve more than 1.97 million patients at over 450 sites across the county. The majority of these patients (72%) have low incomes, and 92% are covered by public insurance or uninsured. CCALAC is dedicated to helping health centers remain at the forefront of health care transformation, in support of the patients and communities they serve. For more information about CCALAC, visit www.ccalac.org or call (213) 201-6500.
Contact: Taryn Burks – Communications Manager, media@ccalac.org | (213) 201-6529.