The 2025-26 Budget: Understanding Recent Increases in the Medi-Cal Senior Caseload

Mar 6, 2025 - Figure  8 shows caseload in the three senior aid categories from April 2021 through December 2024. Senior caseload grew by about 320,000 individuals over the period, with growth occurring almost exclusively in the Medically Needy category.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5010

Mental Health Services Act: Impact of Governor's Proposal on Funding for Children and Youth

Aug 10, 2023 - While the Legislature might consider requiring a portion of each proposed category be spent on children and youth services, this approach comes with a number of drawbacks. As discussed above, adding a funding requirement to the FSP category may increase funding for an effective approach to providing children and youth mental health services with a limited impact on current service levels.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4786

The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Mar 13, 2026 - The department stated that its budget projections for 2026 ‑27 do not incorporate any potential added costs due to the changes in H.R 1. Will the department be able to determine whether its costs increase in the future due to H.R. 1?
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5157

Mental Health Services Act: Revenue Volatility and the Governor’s Proposal to Reduce Allowable County Reserves

Jul 13, 2023 - One way to measure the variability in a data series is average deviation (AD). AD summarizes —for a given time period —how many percentage points the data in a series deviate from the average growth rate.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4780

The 2026-27 Budget: Medi-Cal Analysis

Mar 2, 2026 - One possible reason for our higher estimate is that our model reflects not only disenrollment among current enrollees, but also reduced enrollment flows over time and a persistent risk of disenrollment among eligible individuals due to added administrative burden.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5146

Considering Medi-Cal in the Midst of a Changing Fiscal and Policy Landscape

Oct 24, 2025 - Below, we provide a more detailed description of each category, as well as some additional changes falling outside these  categories. Changes to Provider Tax Rules Notably Scales Back Use of Provider Taxes.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5083

Mental Health Services Act: Proposed Bond to Fund Behavioral Health Facilities and Veterans Housing

Aug 17, 2023 - In other areas —such as in Los Angeles County, North San Juaquin Valley, San Diego-Imperial, and the Superior region (northern inland counties) —RAND estimates a shortage in some categories but a surplus in other categories.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4790

Building California’s Behavioral Health Infrastructure: Progress Update and Opportunities for the Proposition 1 Bond

Feb 5, 2025 - The study classifies psychiatric beds in three categories: acute (individuals with the highest level of needs, typically served for days to weeks), subacute (moderate to high level of needs for multiple months), and community residential (lower level of need for up to multiple years).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4954

Mental Health Services Act: Proposed Restructuring of the MHSA Funding Categories and Impacts on County Spending

Jul 13, 2023 - As shown in the figure, linking the current funding categories to the proposed ones, we assume that programs currently under the CSS category would be classified under the FSP, Housing Interventions, and BHSS categories.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4782

Mental Health Services Act: LAO Update: The Governor's Revised Behavioral Health Modernization Proposal

Aug 21, 2023 - For example, during the initial three-year planning period a county could shift 7  percentage points from the FSP category and 7  percentage points from the Housing Interventions category, which would result in an increase of 14  percentage points of funding in the BHSS category.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4792