California Budget Deficit Grows / Steep Cuts for Health Care

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem_news at yahoo.com
Mon Dec 15 10:36:29 PST 2008







California
Budget Deficit Grows; Schwarzenegger Urges Immediate Action

 

Source: The California Healthline (http://www.californiahealthline.org)

Date: December 11, 2008

 

 

On Wednesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) announced that California's budget
shortfall had increased to $14.8 billion for the current fiscal year and
criticized legislators for not taking action to resolve the deficit, the AP/San
Francisco Chronicle reports (Lin, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 12/10).

 

Administration officials said Wednesday that the budget gap
could expand to as much as $40 billion by mid-2010 if nothing is done to reduce
spending or increase revenue (Zapler, San Jose Mercury News, 12/10).

 

Republican legislators have opposed proposals by
Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers that would address the budget deficit
by a combination of tax increases and spending cuts (California Healthline,
12/9).

 

Republican legislators have not yet presented a
"detailed proposal that adds up to $14.8 billion," according to the
AP/Chronicle.  Republican legislative
leaders say they have offered a number of proposals publicly and privately, and
earlier this week indicated that they would propose cuts to Medi-Cal and other
social services programs. 

 

Medi-Cal is California's
Medicaid program (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 12/10). 

 

For more information, please visit:

http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2008/12/11/california-budget-deficit-grows-schwarzenegger-urges-immediate-action.aspx

 

 ------------------------------------------------------------

 

Steep Cuts for Health Care in Governor's New Spending Plan

 

Source: The California Healthline (http://www.californiahealthline.org)

Date: November 07, 2008

 

  

The California Health and Human Services Agency faces a
mid-year budget cut of $950 million and the prospect of a $3 billion cut for
fiscal year 2009-2010 under a proposal that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)
presented on Thursday, according to the Eureka Reporter (Harrison, Eureka
Reporter, 11/6).

 

The spending reductions came as part of Schwarzenegger's
call for an emergency session of the Legislature to address the state's growing
budget deficit, now projected to exceed $11 billion for the current fiscal year
(Garcia, San Jose Mercury News, 11/6).



 

The governor's plan would eliminate Medi-Cal coverage of
dental, podiatry and psychology services for adult beneficiaries (Yamamura,
Sacramento Bee, 11/7). Vision benefits also would be eliminated for adult
Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

 

In addition, the governor has resurrected a plan to require
some adult Medi-Cal beneficiaries whose annual incomes are between 72% and 100%
of the federal poverty level to "pay for a portion of their Medi-Cal
coverage," according to the Los Angeles Times (Halper/Rau, Los Angeles
Times, 11/7).

 

Part of a Larger Proposal

 

Along with more than $4.5 billion in spending cuts, the
governor offered proposals to increase state revenue by $4.7 billion, in part
by raising the state sales tax and broadening it to apply to some services and
activities.

 

The governor also announced a series of plans aimed at
stimulating California's
economy (San Jose Mercury News, 11/6). 

 

Among his economic stimulus proposals, Schwarzenegger called
for modifying some environmental regulations to expedite some hospital
construction and other public works projects (Wiegand, Sacramento Bee, 11/6).
The changes would aim to streamline the permit and plan review process for
non-structural hospital construction projects estimated to cost less than $2
million (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 11/6).

 

Next Steps, Prospects

 

The Senate and Assembly met briefly on Thursday but did not
act on the governor's proposals (Miller, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 11/6).

 

Democratic legislative leaders voiced doubts that lawmakers
would reach an agreement before Dec. 1 when new legislators are sworn in, and
some Republican leaders remain opposed to tax increases (Los Angeles Times,
11/7).

 

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) praised elements of the proposal
but said the cuts to health and human services programs were "a
non-starter" (Sacramento Bee, 11/7).

 

Meanwhile, health care advocates and other groups have begun
mobilizing against elements of the proposal (Los Angeles Times, 11/7).

 

For more information, please visit:

http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2008/11/7/steep-cuts-for-health-care-in-governors-new-spending-plan.aspx

 



Abid Mogannam &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/

CAL/AAEM, a nonprofit professional organization for emergency physicians, operates the CAL/AAEM News Service solely as an educational resource for physicians. Dissemination of an article by CAL/AAEM News Service does not imply endorsement, agreement, or recommendation by CAL/AAEM News Service, CAL/AAEM, or AAEM.  


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/attachments/20081215/334b26d1/attachment.html 


More information about the CALAAEM mailing list