As both houses prepare to vote on the final 2017-18 Budget Act, there are a number of HHS-related items that will be included. Please refer to the forthcoming CSAC Budget Action Bulletin for more detail on the following:
Mental Health Funding (AB 113/SB 97 and AB 99/SB 83): The package also provides a prospective solution for the reversion of unused Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funding that forgives past unused funding and allows small counties up to 5 years to use MHSA funds. CSAC supports this proposal. Further, the package also provides $5 million for mental health services at community colleges; CSAC had opposed this proposal when it was originally funded with MHSA administrative funding on an ongoing basis. Now it is funded with Proposition 98 education moneys, and is a one-time appropriation.
Graduate Medical Education (AB 114/SB 98): CSAC supported the proposal by the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems to resurrect a Graduate Medical Education program to leverage Medicaid funding to train much-needed new doctors. A late amendment on the Assembly side would have also required public hospitals to contract with all managed care plans in their area, but in the face of CAPH and CSAC opposition, that amendment was dropped. We are pleased to see the inclusion of this new program in the 2017-18 Budget Act.
