The California HealthCare Foundation has developed valuable primers on two of the state’s largest and most important health care programs.
Medi-Cal (Medicaid) is the main source of health care insurance for 6.4 million people — one in six Californians. It draws nearly $17 billion in federal funds into the state’s health care system. The presentation Medi-Cal Facts and Figures: A Look at California's Medicaid Program serves as a valuable resource for understanding Medi-Cal, which represents 15 percent of all General Fund spending. It includes information on:
- The importance of Medi-Cal;
- A comparison to Medicare;
- Its legislative history;
- Governing agencies;
- Budget funding sources; and
- Enrollees and cost.
It further describes key aspects of the program, including: eligibility, enrollment, benefits, service delivery, expenditures, beneficiary experiences, a comparison of Medi-Cal with other state Medicaid programs, and a discussion of Medi-Cal and the state budget.
The Healthy Families program provides low-cost health insurance to children of families whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medi-Cal, but are below 250% of the Federal Poverty Level (about $38,600 for a family for three). As of September 2003, 673,000 children were enrolled in Healthy Families at a cost of more than $650 million.
Healthy Families is California’s implementation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), a publicly funded health care financing program that covers 650,000 low-income children (as of April 2003). Topics covered in the presentation The Healthy Families Program: An Overview include:
- Definition of the program;
- Legislative history;
- Eligibility;
- Enrollment;
- Benefits;
- Organization and service delivery; and
- Policy issues.
Both publications are now available online through the link below.