Health Care: It’s Grim

About the best that can be said concerning the health-legislation record of this session of the California Legislature, and the provisions for health care in the new budget, is that the state has held its ground. Neither Gov. George Deukmejian’s wishes to make major cuts in Medi-Cal funding nor the better-service hopes of those providing health care to low-income persons have been realized.

As matters now stand, health services will continue to deteriorate for a significant number of low-income persons because of cost-cutting affecting the hospitals that bear the burden of uncompensated care, and because Medi-Cal fees for doctors and dentists remain so low that many simply do not accept patients under the program.

Some legislation that would provide modest help in some of the crisis areas is awaiting the governor’s signature. SB 68 would reopen the issue of raising to $800 the fees for obstetricians offering Medi-Cal services, which, inadequate as it is, nevertheless might help remedy the appalling lack of prenatal services--one of the most cost-effective public-health programs. AB 214 would put some teeth into anti-dumping laws designed to keep hospitals from transferring uninsured patients to public hospitals when the transfer could jeopardize the patients’ conditions. SB 1609 would restore $21 million in capital funds for desperate public hospitals. AB 219 would provide $13 million for the trauma centers with the highest number of uninsured patients, and would attract an equal amount of federal matching funds, to give some relief in the trauma-center crisis. And SB 873 would launch a program for emergency care of undocumented aliens, bringing to California funds under a federal matching program adopted in 1986.