Medi-Cal deficiency in California reaches $ 6,200 million with unprecedented costs, increased cost

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The hole in the budget of Medi-Cal California seems to be bigger than what civil servants reported last week.

California medical care staff told the legislature on Monday that the state would need another $ 2.8 billion to pay Medi-Cal suppliers by the end of the fiscal year.

This adds a $ 3.4 billion loan that the administration told legislators last week to execute “critical” payments for Medi-Cal The State Federal Health Insurance Program for low-income people.

Together, this is an expense of $ 6.2 billion above the budget estimated that governor Gavin Newo signed last summer. Almost 15 million Californians have a medical coating through Medi-Cal, also known as Medicaid.

“With the loan, the administration plans to manage the costs for the rest of the current year,” says Michelle Bass, director of the Ministry of Medical Services, which controls Medi-Cal.

The BAS explained to the legislators of a budget hearing that several factors contribute to an expense more than expected, including an increase in the cost of pharmacy, but also a greater growth of registration than the state projected by the state. For example, the state underestimates Number of immigrants without legal status This will be registered with the program in the last year.

The BAS said the department has about a month of data on new policies before having to make forecasts for the budget signed Newsom.

“These changes were not preceded and they all happened at once,” Bass said.

Developments include:

• They enrolled in the most immigrants with no legal status expected. In the last 10 years California has Extended Medi-Cal Covered of undocumented people of different ages. The last group, adults from 26 to 49 years old, managed to request Medi-Cal as of January 1, 2024. In January $ 2.7 billion over your budget Due to the cost of covering medical care and medical recipes of newly registered immigrants. According to updated assessments by the administration, the coverage of immigrants in the country without legal permission costs the state approximately $ 8.5 billion from the common fund.
• In addition, as of January 1, 2024, more elderly people can register with Medi-Cal after the state has stopped considering certain goods, such as cars, houses and savings, determining the admissibility of a person. Now, as far as everyone is concerned, the admissions of the elderly are based on their income.
• The program has registered a general increase in inscriptions due to the flexibility associated with the pandemic. The population of the beneficiaries of Medi-Cal in California is shot during a Covid-19 pandemic, when the federal government temporarily stopped revenue checks to retain the persons insured during the national emergency. The number of people who abandoned the program after the pandemic was less than the department suggested.

BAS said other countries also exceed their budget and indicated that medical expenses are generally increasing in the United States.

The budget has been annoyed by some state Republicans who claim that the governor and Democrats promise too much, deciding to expand Medi-Cal’s services to all low-income immigrants. The Democrats came to defense of the expansion and efforts of the state to preserve the population covered during the pandemic.

“What you mention means that we have succeeded,” said the Assembly Pilar Shiavo, Democrat from Santa Clarita, bass during the audience on Monday. “We were able to support people covered, providing access to medical attention.”

Schiavo added that the current deficit in California has a solution, but not so much the possible abbreviations of Medicaid that Congress is currently considering.

Recently Republicans from the House of Representatives voted in favor of promoting a proposal that could lead to abbreviations of $ 880 billion for a group of programsMost of all, Medicaid, for the next 10 years. According to some estimates that could transfer annual losses of $ 10 to $ 20 million a year for California, an amount that government officials say cannot cover.

This note is made with the support of the California Foundation for Health (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the right attention when they already need a price they can pay. Visit www.chcf.org for more information.

This article was originally published by CalmattersS