This brief analyzes the impact the law is projected to have on workers, patients, and the state budget in the first year of the policy. [...] The estimated number of workers affected by the law includes 322,000 workers (76%) employed directly by health care facilities and earning below the minimum standards, and 76,000 workers (18%) who will receive indirect wage increases due to spillover effects on the wages of workers in the same facilities earning somewhat above the new minimum wage. [...] The state will bear only a fraction of these increased expenditures through its roles as the employer of certain health care workers, the purchaser of health benefits for state employees, and the payer of Medi-Cal benefits alongside the federal government. [...] If the state decides to increase Medi-Cal rates, the Medi-Cal share of the increase in labor costs should only reflect a fraction of the overall increase in total health care expenditures due to the law given that the state- and federally-funded Medi-Cal program paid for 20.6% of California personal health care expenditures in 2019, according to Center for Medicaid and Medicaid Services estimates.. [...] To the extent that health care workers newly enroll in job-based coverage, it could have an indirect cost to the state if the state aims to fully reimburse facilities for the Medi-Cal share of the higher labor costs that result from the law.
Authors
- Pages
- 8
- Published in
- United States of America