A Long-Term Outlook: Disability Among California’s Seniors

Nov 28, 2016 - Seniors turning 65 between 2015 and 2019 who have greater than a high school education spend fewer years on average with one or more ADL limitations than seniors with a high school degree or GED credential and seniors with less than a high school education (4.2 years vs. 4.8 years and 5.8  years, respectively).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3509

The 2026-27 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Mar 13, 2026 - The final rule imposes a series of new requirements on states with staggered deadlines over the next several years. These requirements include establishing grievance systems for home ‑ and community ‑based services, reporting on service delivery timeliness, and establishing an advisory group on rates paid to direct care workers, among other items.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5157

The 2026-27 Budget: Medi-Cal Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - Beyond baseline spending trends, Medi ‑Cal is facing a series of upcoming policy changes. The state enacted many of these changes in the 2025 ‑26 Budget Act in June 2025 as budget solutions intended to slow growth in Medi ‑Cal spending.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5092

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

Jul 13, 2023 - In assessing the volatility of a data series, looking at the year-to-year changes in the data is important. When data show more variability in annual changes, they are said to be more volatile. One way to measure the variability in a data series is average deviation (AD).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4780

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

Aug 21, 2023 - We released a series of analyses on various components of the Governor’s Behavioral Health Modernization proposal. A number of these posts analyzed the Governor’s initial proposal as reflected in SB 326 (Eggman), as amended on July 13, 2023, which would make far-reaching changes to the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4792

The 2023-24 Budget: Whole Child Model Expansion

May 5, 2023 - As part of a series of federal Medicaid authorizations in 2010, the state received approval from the federal government to pilot new approaches to better coordinate CCS and non-CCS services. According to DHCS, these pilots were intended to improve health outcomes and patient and provider satisfaction while also slowing the rate of growth in spending.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4767

Mental Health Services Act: Proposed Change in Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission’s Role

Jul 13, 2023 - This post is one of a series of Legislative Analyst’s Office posts on the various components of the Governor’s Behavioral Health Modernization proposal, reflected in SB 326 (Eggman), as amended on June 19, 2023.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4781

The 2023-24 California Spending Plan: Health

Oct 23, 2023 - (Federal reimbursement is contingent on the state meeting a series of milestones, including providing increased access to a full continuum of behavioral health care.) Estimated spending under the waiver totals about $6  billion in DHCS —$185  million General Fund, $4  billion federal funds, and $2  billion in county and other funds —from 2023-24 through 2027-28.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4810

The 2021-22 Budget: Behavioral Health: Medi-Cal Student Services Funding Proposal

Feb 17, 2021 - This budget post is one of a series of posts that we are releasing on major behavioral health ‑related proposals of the Governor. In separate posts, we analyze the Governor ’s proposals to ( 1)  p rovide grant funds to counties to acquire and renovate behavioral health facilities, and ( 2)  e stablish a demonstration project in which a select number of counties would assume responsibility for treating felony Incompetent ‑to ‑Stand ‑Trial patients.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4377

The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Health

Oct 24, 2022 - This post summarizes overall spending in the 2022-23 budget package for health programs. It is part of our Spending Plan series, which contains posts focused on each major sector of the state budget.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4642