{"id":9020,"date":"2016-11-11T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/11\/11\/what-happens-to-medicaid-in-california-under-a-trump-administration\/"},"modified":"2016-11-11T15:56:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T15:56:00","slug":"what-happens-to-medicaid-in-california-under-a-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/what-happens-to-medicaid-in-california-under-a-trump-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens To Medicaid In California Under A Trump Administration?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By April Dembosky<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a Medicaid expansion into law as part of the state’s budget authorization in 2013. Rich Pedroncelli\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rich Pedroncelli\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed that he will repeal and replace<\/a> Obamacare. Specifics are scarce, but one plan Trump has outlined would change how the federal government funds Medicaid, health coverage for low-income people.<\/p>\n

Twenty-million Americans now have health coverage because of Obamacare. A full quarter of them are in California. And most of them are covered by Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid.<\/p>\n

“Winding back the clock would create all kinds of turbulence and disruption,” says Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

Right now, the federal government shares the cost of Medicaid with the states, no matter how many people are enrolled. But Trump wants to put a limit on that funding and give states a fixed pot of money called a block grant.<\/p>\n

“A block grant would give California greater flexibility in running the Medi-Cal program, but it would also give the state less money,” Levitt says.<\/p>\n

California would feel the pain more than other states. “The effect is magnified in California in part because the state has been so successful in getting people signed up for coverage,” Levitt says.<\/p>\n

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