Before Governor Jerry Brown (D) came out with the January budget, some in the health care community speculated that new budget cuts wouldn’t hit health programs — because there wasn’t much left that could be cut back.
But that proved untrue, when reductions hit Medi-Cal, Healthy Families and In-Home Supportive Services.
Now that the state is staring at the business end of a $16 billion deficit — almost $7 billion greater than January estimates — many in the health care community are certain that safety-net programs could be cut even further.
The governor is scheduled to release details of his May budget revision at 10 a.m. today. We will update Capitol Desk with more information as soon as it’s available.