California Budget Cutbacks May Affect Medi-Cal Funding

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to fully fund the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) in his proposed 2009-10 budget, but California residents with AIDS who are on Medi-Cal could face reduced help.

For the 2008-09 fiscal year, the budget for Medi-Cal is $38.5 billion, with $14.4 billion of that coming from state funds. Total reductions for Medi-Cal would be $1.1 billion over the next 18 months, going into effect as soon as the state budget passes.

Medi-Cal provides health care to low-income people, including many who are living with AIDS. Proposed cuts to the program would deny coverage to thousands of people on Medi-Cal by lowering income eligibility and increasing costs for some residents who are disabled, according to advocates for people living with AIDS. The state could also lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal matching funds. People who have HIV but who haven't been diagnosed with AIDS aren't eligible for Medi-Cal.

Mark Cloutier, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said in a statement, "These Medi-Cal reductions will likely lead to poorer health outcomes for the most vulnerable people living with HIV."

According to the foundation, Schwarzenegger's proposed budget is designed to close a projected $41.6 billion budget gap through the end of the next fiscal year by raising $14.3 billion in new revenue, cutting spending by $17.4 billion over the next 18 months, and relying on borrowed funds.

Tony Cava, spokesman for the state Department of Health Care Service, said people with AIDS can be found in any of Medi-Cal's several programs, and the change in eligibility requirements depends on the program.

In the program for disabled people, for example, there's a proposal to scale back an expansion of the program that occurred in 2001.

At that time, the income level to apply for the program was increased from 69 percent to 127 percent of poverty, adjusted for inflation.

Now, there's a proposal to partially reduce this expansion to the income levels for Supplemental Security Income and State Supplemental Payments (funds that the state adds on to the federal supplemental income).

As a result, Cava said, 73,000 people would no longer be eligible for Medi-Cal. The change would be effective May 1.

To qualify for the SSI and SSP payments, an individual can't make more than $870 a month, said Cava.

ADAP will provide medications to approximately 35,000 Californians next fiscal year, about 12 percent of whom live in San Francisco. The total cost of the program for fiscal year 2009-10 is $418 million. Courtesy Kongotimes.