Schwarzenegger Meets With Leavitt, Bush
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Tuesday met with HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt in Washington, D.C., "to discuss Medicaid funding issues," the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Coile, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/9).
Schwarzenegger last month met with Leavitt to request more funding for Medi-Cal, including as much as $700 million annually to help the state pay hospitals that treat uninsured patients. If granted, the funding would be distributed over five years. The state administration has previously suggested a June deadline for finalizing an agreement (California Healthline, 2/18).
During the trip on Tuesday, the governor also met with President Bush, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and other Cabinet members.
Margita Thompson, the governor's spokesperson, said, "They talked about the governor's reform proposals ... and how we could work with the administration. It was a very substantive meeting" (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/9).