Read CPEHN’s analysis of the 2023-2024 State Budget. From January to July, the Governor, Legislature, advocates, and community partners debated how California’s historic surplus should be used.
View CPEHN’s 2023 Budget Summary here.
The California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
For Immediate Release
June 27, 2023
Contact: Kiran Savage-Sangwan
CPEHN Applauds Final Budget Deal; Urges Equity Focus in Implementation
CPEHN applauds the 2023-24 state budget agreement reached yesterday by Governor Newsom and Legislative leaders. This budget agreement protects our progress toward universal coverage and health equity, and makes important investments as a down payment to future efforts.
The Managed Care Organization (MCO) tax is a historic investment in the Medi-Cal program, California’s most important tool for health equity. The tax will bolster the foundational underpinnings of the program, helping to increase access and quality. In order to advance equity with these dollars, CPEHN urges the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to focus the implementation of provider rate increases on a methodology that recognizes and mitigates underlying racial inequities. We look forward to partnering on this effort.
The agreement rightfully returns individual mandate penalty funds to Covered California via the Health Care Affordability and Reserve Fund. These dollars will be used to lower health care costs for consumers who purchase insurance through Covered California.
Finally, the agreement maintains critical funding for community health workers (CHWs) so that the state can strengthen this critical workforce and ensure robust implementation of the new Medi-Cal benefit. The budget allocates $15M to the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) for CHW training in 2023 and $57.5M in each 2024 and 2025.
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