California will lose millions of dollars in federal matching funds for the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, after Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration failed to fill out the necessary paperwork by a March 31 deadline.
CalMatters.org reported:
California voters told lawmakers last fall that they wanted doctors to get paid more to see low-income patients. But officials for the Newsom administration blew past a federal deadline to make that happen through Medi-Cal Monday, effectively leaving millions of dollars unclaimed.
The unclaimed money is tied to Proposition 35, a ballot measure passed by 68% of voters in November. The measure committed money from a special tax on health insurance plans to increase payments to doctors and health care facilities that treat low-income patients in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.
But first the state had to submit papers to the federal government for approval. That deadline was March 31.
As Breitbart News reported last month, Medi-Cal was already in trouble, as Newsom’s administration has been forced to borrow more than $6 billion to cover a shortfall after the state extended free health care to illegal aliens in 2024.
Newsom failed to meet the federal application deadline, according to CalMatters, because he did not fill a key slot on the committee that had been created to oversee the spending. Newsom did not support Proposition 35 last year.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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