Relationship of the Medi-Cal Program in California

¶ … relationship of the Medi-Cal program in California with the government at large; this paper also examines how this medical program connects with the governmental department of health services.

It's important first to understand what Medi-Cal is and how it works. According to the official website, the program refers specifically to California's Medicaid program and structure. "This is a public health insurance program which provides needed health care services for low-income individuals including families with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, foster care, pregnant women, and low income people with specific diseases such as tuberculosis, breast cancer or HIV / AIDS. Medi-Cal is financed equally by the State and federal government" (medi-cal.ca.gov, 2013). While some critics of the program see such an investment in public health as too large an expenditure of money, the reality is that the program is indeed worthwhile and effective as so much of what it does is preventative. For instance, the programs in place to support healthy eating and exercising along with smoking cessation are indeed important at preventing a wealth of intensive health problems and other factors. There is even a program in place for breast and cervical cancer, along with programs in place to ensure that reimbursement is achieved for long-term care.

Much of the work and the forward momentum which has been achieved with Medi-Cal is in conjunction with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Thus, certain ways in which Med-Cal engages with the general public and with professional healthcare facilities is in regards to the methods of work as stipulated by the ACA. For instance, "Pursuant to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as amended by the H.R. 4872-24 Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Section 1202, ACA and 42 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 447 require state Medicaid agencies to reimburse primary care physicians with a specialty designation of family medicine, general internal medicine or pediatric medicine, at parity with Medicare for specified Evaluation and Management (E&M) and Vaccine Administration services" (medi-cal.ca.gov, 2013). While this might create more work for the government agency, it helps to serve any given healthcare facility, and ultimately, the individual with great precision and a more immediate meeting of needs. Even though a tremendous amount of good has come from the federal government support of the Medi-Cal program, there's still a lack of control that this state program has over its own existence. For instance, in 2011, the federal government cut millions out of the operating budget, simply because they could (Gorman, 2011); this meant that it made it even more difficult for poor people to get any sort of health coverage. Thus, while Medi-Cal is an ideal program and represents an instance where the state and federal government are actually working well together in harmony, there are still many ways in which Medi-Cal needs more autonomy in the manner and extent to which it is treating people. This is significiant because at this time Medi-Cal serves around 7.6 million poor and disabled Californians (Gorman, 2011). Medi-Cal is still in relationship of extreme reliance and lack of more comprehensive autonomy that the government can make such adjustments at whim, thus limiting how much poor people can see a doctor or the types and amounts of food they can by.