Medi-Cal

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California Workers' Rights: A Manual of Job Rights, Protections and Remedies

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Nari Rhee

Medicaid Cuts—Including Work Documentation Requirements—Harm Older Adults

Rolling back Medicaid access through cuts and bureaucratic hurdles will have far-reaching and disproportionate impacts on older adults. In particular, the work documentation requirement poses an especially draconian barrier to older adults, given the steady dropoff in employment after age 50 due to deteriorating health, age discrimination, and increasing responsibility to provide care for aging family members.

Laurel Lucia,Miranda DietzandAlexis Manzanilla

The Importance of Comprehensive Health Benefits for All Low-Income Californians

California’s historic expansion of coverage to undocumented individuals has not only brought the state closer to universal coverage, but has also reduced racial disparities in health coverage. However, this progress is at risk due to a new state budget proposal that would curtail Medi-Cal benefits for certain immigrants, ahead of additional severe federal cuts to Medicaid being considered.

Laurel Lucia

California Could Lose Up to 217,000 Jobs if Congress Cuts Medicaid

Republicans are considering major cuts to Medicaid to offset tax cuts. Depending on the specific mechanisms and timing for cutting Medicaid, California could expect to see between $10 billion and $20 billion fewer federal dollars per year coming to Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. These federal cuts would lead to significant job loss in health care and other sectors.

Laurel Lucia,Enrique Lopezlira,Ken JacobsandSavannah Hunter

Proposed health care minimum wage increase: State costs would be offset by reduced reliance on the public safety net by health workers and their families

In this brief we estimate the new costs to the state resulting from SB 525 as well as the savings it would generate through reductions in safety net program enrollment of affected workers and their family members.

Laurel Lucia,Tynan ChallenorandMiranda Dietz

How will Californians’ health coverage sources change when the public health emergency ends?

The Medi-Cal redetermination process has been paused during the COVID public health emergency. As a result, many more individuals have newly enrolled in Medi-Cal than disenrolled, increasing Medi-Cal enrollment by almost 2 million since the beginning of the pandemic. This blog post summarizes (1) the available estimates of the potential reduction in Medi-Cal enrollment once the PHE is unwound and redeterminations have been completed, and (2) the likely eligibility for and enrollment in private coverage among those losing Medi-Cal.

Miranda Dietz,Laurel Lucia,Srikanth Kadiyala,Tynan Challenor,Annie Rak,Dylan H. RobyandGerald F. Kominski

California’s biggest coverage expansion since the ACA: Extending Medi-Cal to all low-income adults

California has the opportunity to expand Medi-Cal to all low-income Californians, regardless of immigration status or age. This policy would result in a massive increase in coverage, bringing close to 700,000 undocumented Californians into coverage and reducing the uninsured rate for residents under 65 to just 7.1%, the biggest single improvement since implementation of the ACA.

Laurel Lucia

Modified Adjusted Gross Income under the Affordable Care Act – UPDATED WITH INFORMATION FOR COVID-19 POLICIES

Under the Affordable Care Act, eligibility for income-based Medicaid and subsidized health insurance through the Marketplaces is calculated using a household’s Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). The Affordable Care Act definition of MAGI under the Internal Revenue Code and federal Medicaid regulations is shown below.

Laurel Lucia

California could lose 269,000 jobs if the ACA is overturned

Overturning the ACA would reduce annual federal funding to California by $28.8 billion in 2022, the year of focus for this analysis. Many Californians’ jobs are also at stake should the ACA be overturned. California would be projected to have 269,000 fewer jobs, $29.3 billion less in state GDP, and $2.2 billion less in state and local tax revenue, compared to if the ACA remains in effect.

Laurel Lucia,Xiao Chen,Dave Graham-Squire,Hanqing Yao,Petra W. Rasmussen,Greg Watson,Dylan H. Roby,Ken Jacobs,Srikanth Kadiyala,Gerald F. KominskiandMiranda Dietz

California’s Steps to Expand Health Coverage and Improve Affordability: Who Gains and Who Will Be Uninsured?

In 2019, state lawmakers took steps to protect California’s coverage gains and increase affordability of coverage by instituting a state individual mandate penalty, providing additional subsidies for Covered California’s individual market enrollees, and expanding Medi-Cal to low-income undocumented young adults. California is the first state to include undocumented adults in full Medicaid benefits and the first to provide subsidies to middle-class consumers not eligible under the ACA.

Laurel LuciaandIan Eve Perry

Comments on the Consumer Inflation Measures Produced by Federal Statistical Agencies

We urge you to not change the cost of living adjustment method for the OPM to Chained CPI-U, any other the other measures mentioned in the request for comment, or any other index that shows lower growth than the current CPI-U. Additionally, we urge you to include other issues apart from cost of living adjustments when considering any changes to the OPM.

Ian Eve Perry

Proposed Trump Administration Change to Federal Poverty Definition Would Cut Aid to Millions of Californians

While this proposal may seem simply technical in nature, the harm in California would be very real. Over time, millions of Californians would lose eligibility for benefits or receive reduced benefits, and that reduced assistance would translate to hundreds of millions of fewer federal dollars flowing into the state’s economy.