Brown’s $113B Budget Plan Includes Several Health Proposals

Editor's Note: This story has been updated.

On Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) released his fiscal year 2015-2016 budget plan, which included several health care proposals, the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" reports (Miller, "Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 1/9).

Health Care Provisions of Budget

In a release, Brown's office said the $113.3 billion budget plan "injects billions of dollars more into schools and health care coverage" (Office of the Governor release, 1/9).

According to the budget, Medi-Cal will account for two-thirds of overall health and human services spending in the coming fiscal year. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program (Governor's 2015-2016 Budget Proposal, 1/9).

The proposal assumes an increase in Medi-Cal rolls from 7.9 million in fiscal year 2012-2013 to about 12.2 million in the coming year. The release attributes the increase to the expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act.

Meanwhile, the release also notes that unfunded liability in the state's retiree health care programs currently is an estimated $72 billion. To address the unfunded liability, the budget plan proposes that "the state and its employees ... share equally in the pre-funding of retiree health benefits, to be phased in as labor contracts come up for renewal." The budget estimates that such a move would result in savings of nearly $200 billion over the next 50 years (Office of the Governor release, 1/9).

However, Brown ruled out using new reserve or debt-payment funds to reduce the state’s retiree health care obligations. He said, "I want to build up the rainy-day fund. I want to use it sparingly."

The proposal also includes continued funding for overtime pay for In-Home Supportive Services ("Capitol Alert," Sacramento Bee, 1/9).