The 2025-26 Budget: Health Care Access and Information

Feb 20, 2025 - Historically, prescription drug prices have tended to grow faster than prices for overall consumer goods and services. As Figure  5 shows, however, as measured by the consumer price index, prescription drug cost inflation has slowed over the past 50 years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4979

The 2025-26 Budget: Medi-Cal Pharmacy Spending

Apr 3, 2025 - Under these formulas, a dru g ’s initial rebate is between 13  percent and 23  percent of its price, depending on the type of drug. Over time, the initial rebate increases if the drug ’s price rises faster than inflation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5026

The 2022-23 Budget: Health Care Access and Affordability

Feb 23, 2022 - The stated intent is to increase the availability of insulin that is priced at a fraction of current market prices. According to the administration, more detail on this proposal will be released in the spring.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4560

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Health

Oct 16, 2025 - To maintain licensure, these entities must (1)  act in a payor ’s best interests; (2)  submit financial statements to DMHC; and (3)  submit drug pricing data to HCAI, among other requirements. Pharmacy benefit managers are to pay annual fees to support DMHC ’s and HCAI ’s ongoing regulatory costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5075

The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Health

Sep 17, 2024 - State law provides for increases in Medi-Cal county administration funding based on projected growth in the California Consumer Price Index. The spending plan pauses these increases through 2027-28, for a savings of $20.4  million General Fund in 2024-25, growing to a projected $88.8  million in 2027-28.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4930

The 2022-23 Budget: Medi-Cal Fiscal Outlook

Nov 17, 2021 - As Medi ‑Cal price inflation and broader measures of inflation in the economy are different, the Medi ‑Cal Outlook does not project any substantially increased cost from inflationary pressures. Should they arise, however, General Fund cost pressure in Medi ‑Cal could be higher than we project.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4474

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

Feb 19, 2021 - DSH intends this pricing structure to act as a disincentive for counties to send felony ISTs to DSH. Counties Required to Invest Any Remaining Funds Into Community Behavioral Health. There are two ways in which participating counties could have funds left over after treating their felony ISTs: ( 1)  i f the actual number of felony ISTs in participating counties is below what DSH
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4382

The 2021-22 Budget: Analysis of CalAIM Financing Issues

Feb 16, 2021 - Such adjustments could be important for protecting against disruptions in Medi ‑Cal managed care if the new regional capitated rates do not adequately reimburse plans based on the underlying health of their members and the prices charged by local service providers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4374

The 2022-23 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2022 - On January 10, 2022, Governor Newsom presented his proposed state budget to the Legislature. In this report, we provide a brief summary of the proposed budget based on our initial review. In the coming weeks, we will analyze the plan in more detail and release several additional budget analyses.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4492

The 2021-22 Spending Plan: Health

Oct 22, 2021 - The spending plan provides $33.7 billion General Fund for health programs. This is an increase of $6.7 billion, or 25 percent, compared to the revised 2020‑21 spending level. This year-over-year increase primarily is due to significant growth in projected General Fund spending in Medi-Cal.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4465