Latest California Healthline Stories
State Budget Plan Is ‘Ugly Beyond Belief’
The annual conference of the Insure the Uninsured Project (“From Reform to Reality: Building Better Systems of Care in California”) was supposed to focus on Medi-Cal expansion, the rollout of the health benefits exchange and how to get insurance coverage for the 6 million Californians who go without it.
But it was pretty hard to ignore the $12 billion in cuts to state programs proposed by Governor Brown — with roughly half of those cuts impacting health services.
The national rancor over the attempt to repeal health care reform slipped into the statewide conference. Orange County is about to announce that it will not be part of the California Health Benefit Exchange.
Seniors Making Noise Over Budget Cuts
They hit Sacramento in force this week, hundreds of seniors and the disabled, milling in front of the Capitol Building with walkers and wheelchairs, chanting about what they want (senior health services) and when they want it (now!).
But most of the political rhetoric in Sacramento has focused on the grim reality of the $25.4 billion deficit and the need to make cuts that no one wants to make.
That includes many health services, from establishing Medi-Cal co-pays and putting a hard cap on the number of provider visits allowed, to eliminating the Adult Day Health Services program and scaling back In-Home Supportive Services. Those latter cutbacks, along with reducing cash benefits from Supplemental Security Income, have incensed and worried seniors, who see a dire future without those services.
Dooley Reacts to Brown’s Speech, Florida Ruling
It has been three weeks since Governor Jerry Brown first floated his ideas for trimming a $25.4 billion deficit, which included roughly $6 billion in cuts to health-related services.
Since then, legislators have listened to hundreds of Californians objecting to those cuts in budget hearings. Diana Dooley has sat in on hearings, talked with the subcommittees and spent a lot of time with legislators and staff to kick around all of the cuts and their possible alternatives.
“I could come up with eight or 10 programs that are [candidates for amending cuts],” Dooley said after Brown’s State of the State speech last night, “but it’s premature to say where there might be modifications.”
Budget Subcommittee Gets an Earful
Even before the Senate budget subcommittee started yesterday, chair Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) asked the packed chamber for a little indulgence.
“We’re about to have a four-hour hearing on what’s going to be a very difficult subject,” DeSaulnier said.
“So please don’t get cranky with the chair,” he said, “I just want to make sure everyone gets heard.”
Deeper Cuts Won’t Come From Health Services
It was standing room only in the governor’s conference room yesterday, as reporters from around the state gathered to hear just how bad it was going to be.
Pretty bad, according to Jerry Brown.
“This is very difficult,” Brown said, as he announced his intention to cut about $6 billion from health-related services — everything from reducing child care subsidies to imposing co-payments for Medi-Cal services.
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:
Health Care Changes Happening — and Coming
Jerry Brown is expected to release his budget proposal today, and it won’t be pretty.
Some of those cuts are likely to hit health care programs in California. To be ready, Diana Dooley, the new secretary of Health and Human Services, recently appointed several familiar names to her team:
Brown Takes the Oath of Office, Again
In a way, you could say there were three former governors of California on hand for yesterday’s inauguration ceremony: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gray Davis and… Jerry Brown.
It was the third time Brown has taken the oath to be the state’s governor. He mentioned that he was happy to be following in his father’s footsteps as governor “and, 36 years after my first inauguration as governor, even follow in my own,” he said.
At the end of his brief 17-minute speech, Brown summed it up this way: “Like our song says,” he said, “California, here I come, right back where I started from!”
Health Care Team Hits Ground Running
Long before today’s inauguration of Jerry Brown, the new governor’s interest in health care policy has been clear.
He appointed a new Secretary of Health and Human Services almost a month ago, back on Dec. 7, naming Diana Dooley for the job. Dooley also will serve on the new and powerful Health Benefits Exchange Board, along with two members appointed last week by outgoing Governor Schwarzenegger — including the woman Dooley replaced at HHS, Kim Belshé.
According to Dooley, there has been a high level of cooperation between the two administrations on health care reform and policy.
New State Health Secretary: ‘I Do Believe I Can Make a Difference’
Diana Dooley, who grew up in a small town in the Central Valley, is about to become California’s central health policy official at a time when the state’s health care services will be changing dramatically.