California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM), a multi-year plan to transform the California’s Medicaid program, went live on January 1 of this year. While CalAIM’s broad reach is intended to help all Medi-Cal enrollees, many of its reforms focus on improving care for specific populations. One of them is the estimated 161,000 Californians who are experiencing homelessness, especially those who have complex physical or behavioral health needs. CalAIM’s goal for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness is to provide a whole-person approach to care and to better address the social factors that affect their health.

A new episode of the health policy podcast Tradeoffs sheds light on CalAIM’s origin story through the experiences of Medi-Cal’s director, Jacey Cooper. It also profiles two Medi-Cal enrollees, one unhoused and one with temporary housing provided through CalAIM, to illustrate why CalAIM is needed, what it can deliver, and some of the challenges that lie ahead.

Listen to the full 33-minute episode of Tradeoffs or read the transcript.

Steven Birenbaum

Steven Birenbaum is a former senior communications officer who supported CHCF’s work to improve care for patients with complex chronic conditions, including older adults and people experiencing homelessness. As a grantmaker, he set strategy to strengthen and support nonprofit journalism in California, overseeing grants to public media outlets, a data fellowship program, and the daily news digest California Heathline. Read More

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José Luis Villegas

José Luis Villegas is a freelance photojournalist based in Sacramento, California, where he does editorial and commercial work. He has coauthored three books on Latino baseball. His work appears in the Ken Burns documentary The 10th Inning and in the upcoming ¡Pleibol! exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Read More