by Suzanne Potter
California News Service
3.30.22 – A hearing is set for today in Sacramento for a bill which would make Medi-Cal accessible to more people.
Low-income older adults and people with disabilities who make just over the Medi-Cal limit have to pay 60 percent of their monthly income as a share of cost, minus a set amount for living expenses. The so-called “maintenance level” is set at just $600 a month.
Tiffany Huyenh-Cho, senior staff attorney for Justice in Aging, a law firm advocating for older adults and persons with disabilities, said Assembly Bill 1900 raises the maintenance level to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which works out to about $1,400 a month.
“It would free up income to pay for food, rent and other expenses,” Huyenh-Cho explained. “Because the maintenance need level won’t be set at such a low number, at $600 a month for a single person.”
So far there is no registered opposition to the bill. The high cost of living in the Golden State makes it nearly impossible to cover basic necessities on $600 a month.
Some 91,000 Californians participate in the share-of-cost program, excluding people in long-term care, and 57,000 are older adults and persons with disabilities.
Today’s hearing before the Assembly Committee on Health will be livestreamed starting at 1:30 p.m.
Huyenh-Cho pointed out at the current maintenance level, many people cannot afford to use the share-of-cost program. “It forces people to forgo medical care because that share of cost is so high,” Huyenh-Cho observed. “Or folks are forced to move into a skilled nursing facility because they can’t afford the wraparound services that Medi-Cal may cover that allow a person to live in their home.”
Advocates say health equity is a big concern because a disproportionate percentage of patients on the share-of-cost program are people of color on fixed incomes.
