Medi-Cal Director Agrees To Remain in Position
Stan Rosenstein on Thursday announced that he will stay on as director of Medi-Cal, reversing last week's announcement that he is stepping down in January 2007, the Sacramento Bee reports. Medi-Cal is the state's Medicaid program (Benson, Sacramento Bee, 12/15).
Rosenstein -- a Medi-Cal employee for 30 years, including 10 years as director -- planned to leave his position to open a Sacramento office of Health Management Associates, a national consulting firm (California Healthline, 12/11).
However, state officials asked Rosenstein to remain in his position to help address expected changes to federal Medicaid policy and work through an expected health care reform plan that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) plans to unveil in January 2007.
To remain as Medi-Cal director, Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Kim Belshé offered Rosenstein a $67,000 pay increase, boosting his salary to $185,000 annually (Sacramento Bee, 12/15).
"California can no longer afford to ignore the intolerable costs of health care that affect almost everyone in the state," a San Francisco Chronicle editorial states. Successful health care reform measures will not focus on achieving "comprehensive" health care reform, which could delay other "essential" reforms from passing sooner.
"The most obvious is moving rapidly toward providing health coverage for all children in California," according to the Chronicle (San Francisco Chronicle, 12/15).