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The governor and some members of the California Legislature are considering cutting up to $1.5 billion from the state's Medi-Cal program. This would cost UC's academic medical centers $14 million and hurt UCSD's ability to serve the neediest Californians. While we are grateful that a state budget conference committee restored those cuts, the budget is not yet final and we want your assistance to help preserve the funding so UC can continue to provide high-quality services to all Californians.

Here is some background:

Forty percent of the patients treated at the five UC academic medical centers are either uninsured or are covered by Medi-Cal, California's public health insurance for the poor and disabled. As the economy continues to soften and as more Californians lose their jobs and health benefits, we expect these numbers to increase. Cutting the facilities that serve as the underpinnings of the safety net at this time is downright unhealthy.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's 2008-09 budget proposes a 10 percent cut to the Medi-Cal reimbursement rates that doctors and hospitals are paid for treating Medi-Cal patients. This would cost UC's academic medical centers $14 million, the equivalent of more than 4,000 hospital inpatient days, or more than 42,000 outpatient visits.

While the reimbursement UCSD receives for treating Medi-Cal patients already does not cover the cost of providing treatment, a further loss of revenue threatens UCSD's role as a safety net provider.

These cuts would threaten UCSD's ability to provide essential medical services to the state's most needy patients as well as all Californians who may, some day, find themselves in need of high-end tertiary services that can only be treated at a UC academic medical center. UC treats, for example, 25 percent of all of the extensive burn cases in the state and cares for half of all transplant cases.

The state is also debating a shift of federal safety net funds away from hospitals that provide treatment for the uninsured and under-insured. The impact of the governor's proposal to redirect these safety net care pool funds would be $11 million to the UC academic medical centers.

These reductions also would hurt UCSD's ability to educate and train California's health care professionals. UC trains two-thirds of the medical students educated in California. We urge you to join us in opposing these cuts. For additional information about the impacts of Medi-Cal cuts on hospitals throughout California and the people who call California home, click here to view the public awareness campaign by the California Hospital Association.

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UCSD Advocacy Network