Protect Medi-Cal Funding, Enrollment & Continuity of Coverage

Executive Summary

The Senate Republican’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicaid funding, would “jeopardize the health and financial security of more than 12 million Californians — one third of the state’s residents — who rely on Medi-Cal [state’s Medicaid program],” writes Staff Attorney Alicia Kauk in the eighth Issue Brief of a 12-part “Protect Medi-Cal Funding,” series. Kauk notes the scope of Medi-Cal and its importance to providing quality care to millions of the state’s most vulnerable residents. But cutting federal Medicaid funding, as congressional Republicans are proposing, would shift health care costs to California, reaching $30.3 billion by 2017. Faced with mounting costs, California may be forced to “cut coverage and benefits or to adopt more burdensome application and renewal procedures to decrease or discourage enrollment,” Kauk says.