4 weeks ago
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Every year, San Diego County spends about a million dollars paying for the health care of a narrow group of people who don’t qualify for other government health care programs.
All California counties have a program like this for people deemed medically indigent, as required under state law. But after the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the expansion of Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, many county programs became mostly obsolete.
In San Diego County, its County Medical Services paid for the health care of about 19,000 people in 2009, the year before the ACA became law. In its most recent fiscal year, it served a total of fewer than 40. At any given time, it has only about two people enrolled.
But with cuts and new work requirements for Medicaid passed by Congress last summer, the medically-indigent program is getting renewed focus.
Labor unions promoting a countywide sales-tax ballot measure have been looking to use some of the revenue from such a tax hike to boost funding for County Medical Services.
And now two Democratic county supervisors are calling for a comprehensive review of the program to identify reforms to make it more accessible. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on a review at their meeting Tuesday.
The program is among a list of county social safety-net programs that could benefit fr...
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