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

Oct 24, 2025 - How Proposition 35 Interacts With Federal Law Makes Tax Permanent, Conditioned on Federal Approval. California has charged a specific tax on health plans (known as the Managed Care Organization Tax) for more than a decade.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5083

The 2026-27 Budget: Medi-Cal Analysis

Mar 2, 2026 - H.R. 1 tightens the existing rules around proportionality, generally prohibiting states from charging higher rates on Medicaid services than non ‑Medicaid services. This notably limits states ’ ability to obtain a waiver from proportionality rules.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5146

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

The 2026-27 Budget: Medi-Cal Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - Under H.R. 1, states are prohibited from charging higher tax rates on Medicaid services than on non ‑Medicaid services. This means that, moving forward, the state ’s health plan tax will no longer be able to charge such a disproportionate tax.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5092

The 2021-22 Budget: Assessment of CalHEERS Dashboard

Mar 25, 2021 - The report also could describe how the fixes and functionalities are designed to address known Medi ‑Cal eligibility functionality issues in CalHEERS, and whether any new issues have been added to the dashboard because of the CalHEERS releases.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4408

The 2021-22 Budget: Behavioral Health: Community Care Demonstration Project

Feb 19, 2021 - Participating Counties Would Be Charged a Premium for Use of State Hospital Beds. Not every felony IST can be treated adequately by counties, as some felony ISTs require a higher level of care that only can be provided in state hospitals.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4382

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

Feb 5, 2025 - Proposition  1 (2024) changed how revenue from the BHSA is spent by the state and counties. The BHSA requires that up to 3  percent of annual revenue (up to about $100  million) is spent on statewide behavioral health workforce initiatives administered by HCAI.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4954

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

Mar 6, 2025 - In the paragraphs that follow, we provide our analysis that results in ou r estimate of at least 165,000 seniors being added due to eligibility expansions since 2020. (As a consequence of this estimate, it follows naturally that we estimate up to 60,000  seniors being added due to the effects of continuous coverage, the unwinding, and unwinding flexibilities, for a total increase of 225,000 seniors due to policy changes.)
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 - 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