Advocates Call for Immediate Help for CA's Uninsured
MARTINEZ (KCBS) - California health care advocates have called for revisions to President Obama's Affordable Care Act which they claim do not thoroughly address the needs of the state's low-income and uninsured residents.
Key provisions of the President's health care bill go into effect Thursday. Specifically, there will be new or expanded options for health insurance coverage, as well as additional consumer protections. Young adults will have an option to remain on their parents' health plan until age 26.
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, with provisions designed to be rolled out gradually.
Some portions of the law have already been implemented, and some provisions will be implemented in 2014 or beyond.
It is that gradual implementation of provisions that has advocates for low-income Californians sounding an alarm, arguing that the latest provisions fail to address the urgent needs of many people.
Equally troubling, advocates warned, is the fact that California's Medi-Cal Waiver is still being negotiated. That proposed legislation would expand coverage to an estimated additional 500,000 Californians through 2014, by lowering an individual's income requirement to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, or $60,000 annually for a family of three.
Essentially, California's Medi-Cal Waiver would provide a bridge for a large segment of California's uninsured residents.
"If it doesn't, we're all in deep trouble," Contra Costa Health Services director William Walker, M.D. warned of the consequences if the legislation fails to win approval in Sacramento. "Only about 10% of our money comes from the local government. 90% comes from the state and federal governments and a majority of it through this waiver."
Dr. Walker said the health crisis will worsen, absent passage of California's Medi-Cal Waiver.
"It covers in the interim those people who in 2014 will be newly eligible for federal coverage," explained Walker. "If that doesn't happen, we're going to have a meltdown of county budget resources, not to mention state resources."
Walker maintained that the waiver is crucial for California's impoverished population.
"Contra Costa Regional and our health centers, along with other public hospitals, are ground zero for the crisis in health insurance."
