California Gov. Jerry Brown has backed spending more money for value-based payment initiatives and behavioral-health programs in the state’s Medicaid program and also wants to spend more money on covering healthcare expenses of immigrant children up to age 19 who are in the United States illegally.
Still, despite modest increases in funding for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, patient advocates complained that the revisions do little to restore $15 billion in cuts made during the Great Recession and its aftermath.