The 2025-26 Budget: Medi-Cal Pharmacy Spending

Apr 3, 2025 - Pharmacy spending continued growing even after the roll out of Medi ‑Cal Rx in 2022. While this growth seems fast in isolation, it is roughly in line with overall Medi ‑Cal spending over the same time period.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5026

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

Mar 6, 2025 - From July 2022 through September 2024, the caseload in the expansion to individuals age 50 and older —a group that is notably not limited to those age 65 and over —increased by about 120,000  individuals.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5010

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

Feb 5, 2025 - Similarly, in 2021 ‑2022, 22  percent of California adults had a mental illness. In 2022, fewer than 80  percent of those with a mental illness received mental health treatment. The shortage of mental health services is more severe for young adults, with 34  percent of individuals aged 18 through 25 having a mental illness in 2021 ‑2022 and less than two ‑thirds of young adults with mental illness receiving services  in 2022.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4954

The 2025-26 Budget: CalAIM Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports Implementation Update

Mar 6, 2025 - Our assessment of ECM and Community Supports utilization draws from data published in this report which, at the time of this brief, spans from January 2022 to June 2024. Benefit Utilization Has Been Low, but Steadily Growing.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5003

The 2025-26 Budget: Health Care Access and Information

Feb 20, 2025 - The 2022 ‑23 budget provided $100  million one ‑time General Fund for a partnership to manufacture a biosimilar insulin product. (Diabetics take insulin to help regulate their blood sugar. Insulin is among the costliest drugs for health insurance plans and consumers.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4979

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

Feb 5, 2025 - This report assesses $1.8 billion in behavioral health infrastructure grants awarded in 2022 and 2023 to help the Legislature conduct oversight over $4.4 billion in additional grants funded by the Proposition 1 bond expected to be awarded beginning May 2025.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/4954

The 2025-26 Budget: Medi-Cal Fiscal Outlook

Nov 20, 2024 - In line with this risk, our outlook assumes future rule changes result in a much smaller MCO tax in 2 027 (around the size of the version that existed from 2020 through 2022). That said, other effects also are possible.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4941

The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Health

Sep 17, 2024 - The 2022-23 budget authorized DHCS to sunset the California Health and Disability Prevention (CHDP) program, which provided early health screening services for children in the fee-for-service delivery system.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4930

The 2024-25 Budget: Department of Health Care Access and Information

Feb 27, 2024 - State Enacted Large Health Workforce Package in 2022 ‑23 Budget. Expanding upon recent health care workforce augmentations, the 2022 ‑23 budget included a multiyear package of limited-term health workforce initiatives at HCAI totaling over $900  million General Fund.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4860

The 2024-25 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Feb 13, 2024 - When the 2022 ‑23 budget accelerated the phase in of service provider rate reform implementation, the associated trailer legislation required providers to use a specified percentage of the upcoming rate increases to raise the wages, salaries, or benefits of direct care staff starting on January 1, 2023 (Chapter 49 of 2022 [SB 188, Committee on Budget]).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4837