MEDI-CAL: Some Ex-Welfare Recipients May Miss Enrollment Deadline

      As the April 30 deadline approaches for welfare-to-work recipients to apply for Medi-Cal benefits, advocates for the poor warned yesterday that nearly 250,000 people may be excluded because of red tape. Beneficiaries who were moved into jobs through 1996 welfare reforms are still eligible for Medi-Cal, but Lucy Quacinella of the National Center for Youth Law said a tight deadline, complicated forms and overloaded case workers could keep many of them from enrolling. To ease the effects of the approaching deadline, the Davis administration has said it will not penalize those who fail to enroll in time. "Counties should do the best they can to meet these deadlines. We don't expect all the counties to make them," said Stan Rosenstein, assistant deputy director of medical care services for the state Department of Health Services (Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 4/8).