California Must Extend Medi-Cal to HIV-Positive Poor

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California Must Extend Medi-Cal to HIV-Positive Poor (Update1) 

By Edvard Pettersson

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- California was ordered by a court to provide Medi-Cal coverage to poor people who are HIV-positive but who haven’t been diagnosed with AIDS, said a nonprofit organization that had sued the state.

A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles found that California’s Department of Health Care Services must comply with a 2002 state law intended to extend Medi-Cal benefits to people with HIV, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said today in a statement. Medi-Cal is the California Medicaid program that provides health-care services to low-income people.

“Despite an excellent record on AIDS i

ssues, Governor Schwarzenegger has been ill-served by his administration, which for six years has failed to enact this crucial -- and ultimately cost-saving -- health-care legislation,â€Â  Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said in the statement.

Before the 2002 law, only HIV positive people who had developed AIDS were eligible for Medi-Cal, according to the statement.

Implementing the bill wasn’t possible in a “cost neutral environment,†Cava, a spokesman for the Department of Health Care Services in Sacramento, said in an e-mailed statement.

“The law was very clear that it should not be implemented if the costs could not be offset by savings,†Cava said. The department “will continue to work with its partners to implement the law in a cost-neutral manner, just as the legislature intended.â€

The case is Weinstein v. California Department of Health Care Services, BS108234, Superior Court of California (Los Angeles County).

To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles atepettersson@....

Last Updated: December 23, 2008 17:18 EST Listen to 350+ music, sports, news radio stations including songs for the holidays FREE while you browse. Start Listening Now!