KHN senior correspondent Angela Hart appeared on 鈥檚 鈥溾�� on Nov. 29 to discuss her reporting on California鈥檚 pricey and ambitious experiment to transform its Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal.
The initiative, , will provide some of Medi-Cal鈥檚 sickest and costliest patients with social services such as , help with housing move-in costs, and home repairs to make living environments safer for people with asthma.
But, as Hart noted, the reforms leave many patients behind. Hart spent time at MLK Community Hospital in South Los Angeles, where patients, health consumer advocates, and hospital executives told her that care hasn鈥檛 improved for the majority of patients, who don鈥檛 receive the new social services. They also told her that low reimbursement rates for doctors and other providers have created a 鈥渟eparate and unequal鈥� system of care in a community that has disproportionately high rates of devastating chronic conditions like diabetes, liver disease, and high blood pressure.
Read Hart鈥檚 in-depth story about MLK hospital , and peruse KHN鈥檚 other Medi-Cal coverage .