Restructuring Medicaid & Medi-Cal

San Francisco Gray Panthers is hosting an informational meeting on the threats to Medi-Cal and Medicaid in the face of the worst state budget deficits in fifty years, persistent long-term unemployment, growing healthcare costs, 20 million new seniors with chronic diseases on the horizon, and a government determined to overturn the advances of the 1930s New Deal and the 1960s Great Society. The threats include drastic budget cuts in the short term and major restructuring in the long term. Members and guests will present and discuss all of these issues. Currently, Medicaid is run by states in accordance with federal guidelines and is financed by Federal-State cost-sharing, where each state dollar is matched by one to three federal dollars, without limit. In the future, the government is planning block-grants, where the federal government gives states fixed amounts with minimal yearly increases, and states are forced to determine how to administer Medicaid with the reduced funding. It is an end to federal entitlements: states would be forced to decide who gets Medicaid and what the benefits are.