Newsom administration misses deadline, loses out on Medi-Cal {dollars}

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration blew previous an essential federal deadline Monday — leading to tens of millions of {dollars} left on the desk that will have been used for Medi-Cal care, writes CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang.

In November California voters accepted Proposition 35which requires income that the state receives from a tax on well being care insurance coverage to extend funds for medical doctors who settle for Medi-Cal.

As a result of Medi-Cal — the state-run medical insurance program for low-income residents — is funded with each state and federal cash, California can use that tax income to request matching federal {dollars}.

However officers within the Newsom administration did not submit the suitable paperwork for federal approval in time for the March 31 deadline. Meaning for the primary quarter of the 12 months, medical doctors is not going to get the promised price will increase and California will lose matching federal {dollars} that will have supported the Medi-Cal program.

The director of California’s Well being Care Providers stated the state’s federal software has been held up as a result of the advisory committee that oversees Prop. 35’s spending nonetheless has unfilled appointments. With the committee scheduled to convene for the primary time on April 14, Newsom’s workplace has not responded to CalMatters’ questions on why one excellent place stays vacant.

Prior to now decade, lawmakers have expanded Medi-Cal eligibility, and this system now covers virtually 15 million Californians. However medical doctors say the quantity they receives a commission to see Medi-Cal sufferers hasn’t elevated. Prop. 35 units apart $2 billion a 12 months for 2025 and 2026 to the state’s common fund and one other $2 billion for greater supplier funds and different investments.

The missed deadline comes at a time of elevated scrutiny over Medi-Cal prices. In March the Newsom administration stated it might have to borrow $6.2 billion to cowl a Medi-Cal finances hole, prompting instant backlash from Republican legislators.

Learn extra right here.

From CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu:

Following a heated committee listening to, California Democrats on Tuesday voted down two Republican-backed payments that will have banned transgender college students from competing in sports activities or accessing faculty services beneath the gender identification the scholars align with.

The listening to got here the day after the Worldwide Transgender Day of Visibility and weeks after Gov. Newsom espoused a conservative speaking level on his podcast, saying that trans athletes’ participation in lady’s sports activities was “deeply unfair.” It was why Republican supporters of the payments evoked his title a number of occasions.

• Assemblymember Heather Hadwicka Grass Valley Republican, at a post-hearing press convention: “Even Gov. Newsom agrees this is simply not fair. We must acknowledge the importance of spaces where girls can thrive without feeling overshadowed by unfair physical advantages.”

Democratic Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas of Salinas, who appeared on the committee to vote towards the laws, stated there was no “epidemic” of transgender kids competing in sports activities: “I’m not going to support a bill that takes rights away from a protected class of people.”

It’s uncommon for legislators to publicly vote “no” on payments, signalling that there was excessive distaste for these two payments particularly.

Newsom’s workplace is reviewing a letter from U.S. Schooling Secretary Linda McMahon that threatened to withhold federal funding from California if it continued to permit trans athletes in lady’s sports activities. His workplace declined to say something about pending laws however stated Newsom “rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids” and that he “takes a back seat to no one on these issues.”

Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAA, testified in December that fewer than 10 of the greater than 500,000 faculty athletes within the U.S. have been transgender.

From CalMatters housing reporter Ben Christopher:

Everyone knows the lease is simply too rattling excessive.

In California, the price of constructing a rental condominium can also be too rattling excessive.

That’s the takeaway of a new examine from the analysis and coverage assume tank RAND, which discovered that it prices greater than twice as a lot to construct a privately-funded multifamily housing venture in California than it does in Texas and 40% greater than in Colorado.

The truth that California building prices quite a bit shouldn’t be information. Final week, a bipartisan group of legislators rolled out a bundle of payments geared toward making it simpler to construct houses.

However the examine seems to be the primary of its sort in drawing on the monetary knowledge of precise tasks.

Jason Ward, the lead writer, stated there’s a constellation of causes that California prices are so excessive. Lots of them are associated to native and state coverage choices. They embrace bountiful constructing codes, difficult approval processes, native influence charges, greater minimal wages for building employees and intensive necessities hooked up to public funding sources.

Maybe most essential is the best way that all the above slows issues down. In Texas, the everyday improvement timeline is lower than two years.

In California, it’s greater than 4.