The Obama Administration handed down a key rule Monday on its health care overhaul having to do with Medicaid, or Medi-Cal in California. States must expand to the federally mandated 138 percent of poverty in order to receive matching funds for those newly eligible for the program.
Because the Supreme Court ruling in June had struck down the requirement that states participate or lose existing match funds, some states thought there might be flexibility in the expansion. But the answer to that question is a clear "no" as Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius explained in a letter to governors.
In a briefing last week, California's Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley indicated she was waiting for guidance from the feds about the Medicaid expansion and might not expand to the full 138 percent limit.
In an email, a spokesperson for the state's department of health and human services said staff is currently evaluating the new information and declined to comment further at this time.
Consumer advocates said it was good to have the matter settled. "We thought that it was the case," Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access told me in a phone call, "but it's good for the federal government to provide clarity and hopefully this allows the states to move forward with all deliberate speed."