California Counties Cutting Back on Health Care, Other Programs

Many California counties are making additional budget cuts that will affect health care programs and other services because of lower-than-expected revenue at the state and local levels, the Sacramento Bee reports.

For example, Sacramento County reduced services for residents with mental illnesses to help address a $123.7 million budget deficit (Lambert, Sacramento Bee, 11/4).

Today, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors will mull nearly $1 million in budget cuts, with health care and welfare programs expected to take the biggest hit (Biasotti, Ventura County Star, 11/4).

In addition, a growing budget deficit in San Francisco likely will force health care programs to be scaled back (Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 11/4).

Compounded Problems

Counties' financial problems are being exacerbated by decisions to defer state payments to counties for some programs.

For example, counties still are waiting for $199.7 million in payments for mental health managed care payments from the state.  In total, counties are waiting for $1.27 billion in state payments (Sacramento Bee, 11/4).