Medi-Cal

About Medi-Cal

More than 15 million Californians rely on Medi-Cal, the state’s health care coverage safety net, for health insurance. Two-thirds of those on Medi-Cal are people of color and often live in communities with a lack of adequate health care providers. Without significant investments to support providers that deliver health care to California’s most vulnerable, millions living in rural and underserved areas are in jeopardy.

Medi-Cal is California’s version of the federal program known as Medicaid. To learn more about CHA’s work to protect Medicaid, visit our federal resource page.

Senate Poised to Make Even Deeper Medicaid Cuts

The U.S. Senate has been toiling this week to modify the House of Representatives’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” with different factions in the GOP angling to put their own imprint on President Donald Trump’s signature tax legislation. Each group has its own goals: Moderates want to protect Medicaid beneficiaries; fiscal hawks want deeper cuts; a handful are pushing to eliminate higher state and local tax deductions (SALT) and others are focused on green energy tax credits, increases in defense spending, sparing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and more. 

Newsom Administration Proposal to Use Proposition 35 Funds to Balance State Budget Thwarts Will of California Voters

SACRAMENTO (May 14, 2025) — “Just two days after a congressional committee released a federal budget proposal that would hollow out Californians’ health care services through drastic Medicaid cuts, the state’s May budget revision proposal piles on. The state would fill its spending gap by taking $1.6 billion from resources that voters directed to Medi-Cal providers and protecting access to care,” said Carmela Coyle, President & CEO of the California Hospital Association.

Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt All Californians

SACRAMENTO (May 12, 2025) — “The legislation proposed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee to enact massive Medicaid cuts is a devastating blow that will be felt by all who need hospital care,” said Carmela Coyle, President & CEO of the California Hospital Association. “Cuts of this magnitude cannot be absorbed. Hospitals will have no other choice but to reduce patient care services or, in the worst cases, close entirely. That means care is lost for everyone — children, seniors, privately insured people — no matter what type of health insurance coverage you have.”