Official Summary
Extends indefinitely an existing statute that imposes fees on hospitals to fund Medi-Cal health care services, care for uninsured patients, and children’s health coverage.
Fiscal Impact: Uncertain fiscal effect, ranging from relatively little impact to annual state General Fund savings of around $1 billion and increased funding for public hospitals in the low hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
- Official CA Voter Guide Summary
- Legislative Analyst Office Analysis
- Show Me The Money (as of Oct 22)
- support: $60,250,000
- oppose: $14,600,000
- Ballotpedia Summary
Notes
- extends current statute indefinitely - Hospital Quality Assurance Fees imposed on hospitals to obtain federal matching funds (since 2009, set to expire 2018)
- 2015-2016 fees = $4.6 B paid by hospitals (used as matching funds for federal funding), $3.7 B paid to hospitals by Medi-Cal, $4.4 B paid to hospitals by federal govt; State General Fund savings $850 M
- Federal government will need to approve extension for hospitals to continue to receive federal funding
- if federal extension does not happen, this fee goes away
- fee could end only by 2/3 vote of ballot proposition measure, not by legislature or simple majority
- Constitutional Amendment portion: fees do not count as revenue toward Prop 98 funding requirement (school funding based on general fund monies brought in)