Protect Medi-Cal Funding, Substance and Use Disorders

Executive Summary

California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, is vital to ensuring that “individuals with opioid use disorders (OUD) have access to to evidence-based, life-saving prevention and treatment services,” NHeLP Staff Attorney Héctor Hernández-Delgado  writes in the tenth Issue Brief of a 12-part “Protect Medi-Cal Funding,” series. Hernández-Delgado details how the Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicaid funding would imperil Medi-Cal’s ability provide comprehensive and quality care to individuals with OUD and other substance use disorders. The Senate bill’s “cuts to Medi-Cal’s federal funding would severely impact OUD prevention and treatment services, with much of the impact falling disproportionately on individuals hardest hit by the overdose epidemic.”