Budget deal jump starts special session bills July 8, 2013 Medi-Cal Health Insurance Exchange, Affordable Care Act, Health Care Reform, Medi-Cal 0 Almost six months have passed since Gov. Jerry Brown opened a special session on health care reform in California, and members of the state Legislature are now beginning to tie up the final loose ends. Of the three sets of bills put forward under the special session’s parameters, all but one appeared to be stalled indefinitely until members of the Legislature reached a budget deal. These bills, which outlined California’s plans to expand the Medi-Cal program and establish a so-called "bridge plan" between Medi-Cal and exchange plans, were sprung from their second house’s committee on health within days of the budget deal, and are now, or will soon be, sitting on the governor’s desk. The third bill, which included market reforms called for under the ACA was signed into law back in March. Under the ACA, the Medi-Cal expansion, which will provide coverage to more than 1.4 million Californians once implemented, will initially be funded by the federal government. As time passes, more and more of the Medi-Cal expansion’s funding obligation will be passed onto the individual states. In these out years, however, the state’s cost for the expansion population would still be a fraction of its cost for traditional Medi-Cal enrollees. In approving the Medi-Cal expansion bill, lawmakers included a provision that would allow future legislators to reconsider the expansion if the federal government's portion of the costs drops below 70 percent. Comments are closed.
