Brown Details ‘Painful’ Cuts to Health Care

Jerry Brown came out with details of his budget proposal today.

The cuts, which total $12.5 billion, include some large reductions in health care services, including:

• $1.6 billion cut from Medi-Cal;
• $1.5 billion savings from reducing eligibility period for state health services;
• $1 billion cut from developmental services;
• $1 billion cut from In-Home Supportive Services; and
• $ 716 million reduction in child care services, including reduction in levels of subsidies.

“What I propose will be painful,” Brown said. “But for 10 years, the state budget has been put together with gimmicks and tricks. This budget will put California back on the road to economic recovery.”

In addition to the cuts themselves, Brown also proposed a shifting of many services to the county level — mental health services, foster care, child welfare, substance abuse and adult protective services would all be “realigned” to local government.

“And of course we’re going to send the money down to the counties to take care of that,” Brown said.