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Health Care Reform May Expand Coverage For Californians

Ryan Faughnder |
March 23, 2011 | 10:55 a.m. PDT

Senior News Editor

As the nation witnesses the first anniversary of health care reform, a new analysis shows that four out of five uninsured Californians may be eligible for coverage by the time the law’s full effects take hold. 

County-USC Hospital (Creative Commons)
County-USC Hospital (Creative Commons)

Increased coverage eligibility will be accomplished by stopping the denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, the expansion of Medi-Cal to more low-income Californians and extending subsidies to small businesses, according to the California Budget Project. Coverage for preventative care through Medicare will also be expanded. 

The reforms intended to close the prescription drug coverage gap know as the “donut hole” will show effects soon, the project reports. The gap requires seniors to pay as much as $4,550 a year for prescription drugs. The gap will be closed gradually and is supposed to be closely completely by 2020, the report says.

The next step, said the budget project's senior policy analyst Hanh Quach, will be to find those newly eligible Californians and actually get them insured.  

"That's the challenge that California has: To identify these people and educate them to make sure they know these benefits are out there for the taking," Quach said.

However, pressure from the state budget will likely dampen the benefits of the Obama health care reforms. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget includes cuts of $1.6 billion to Medi-Cal, $1 billion from developmental services and $1 billion from in-home supportive services for the elderly. On top of that, $861 million will be redirected from mental health services.

Health services advocates argue that those state cuts will increase overcrowding at hospitals, wait times and the number of uninsured. This will likely result in more pressure on emergency rooms and more long-term health care costs for the state, said USC health services expert Michael R. Cousineau. 

Dr. Mitch Katz, the new chief of L.A. County health services, told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that overcrowding would increase at County-USC hospital, despite previous claims by former health chief Carol Meyer that overcrowding would subside in 2014.

Quach said the California Budget Project is aware of the problems with the state budget and what they may mean for state health care. This study however, is simply to determine the effects of national health care.

"Right now we're fighting two battles," she said.

Trouble remains for the enactment of the health care law nationwide. Several federal judges have declared the “individual mandate,” which requires everyone to purchase health insurance, unconstitutional. The case will likely eventually go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Obama administration has led off by enacting the most popular provisions already, including allowing young adults to stay on their parents' plans until they turn 26 and providing some free preventive care to the elderly. However, a recent Gallup poll suggested that public opinion on health care reform is fairly split. About half think it's a good thing. About 40 percent say it's bad.

Reach Ryan Faughnder here. 



 

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