Gavin Newsom announces plans to spend $350 million to vaccinate Medi-Cal recipients. Here’s why
California plans to spend $350 million to incentivize COVID-19 shots among Medi-Cal beneficiaries, who disproportionately lag the general population in getting vaccinated.
Nearly 14 million Californians are enrolled in the state-sponsored health care program, according to the Department of Health Care Services. The program offers free or reduced-cost services to income-limited adults and children.
As of July 18, however, Medi-Cal beneficiaries trailed the overall vaccination rate in California. Seventy-six percent of eligible Californians, or those over 12, are at least partially vaccinated, state data show, compared to only 45.6% of Medi-Cal recipients.
Most counties average a double-digit difference in vaccination rates between the two groups, underscoring a lack of access to and distrust in the vaccine among certain populations.
In Sacramento County, for example, 61.9% of all eligible Californians by mid-July had received at least one dose, compared to 38% of those on Medi-Cal. In Los Angeles County, those numbers are 67.7% and 46.4%, respectively, and 55.4% and 37.1% in Fresno.
To mitigate skepticism and increase access to the shots, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Friday the state plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to bump up rates.
The $350 million will provide incentives and fund other “strategies to get trusted messengers to get our Black and Brown communities vaccinated and supported,” Newsom said. “Also to get them enrolled in our expanded suite of services that we offer this year in terms of Medi-Cal.”
The funding will send incentive payments to Medi-Cal managed care plans for “activities that are designed to close vaccination gaps with their members,” according to a Department of Health Care Services press release. Additional funding is conditional on meeting certain goals.
The money will also support outreach efforts by the plans and their providers, and loops in community-based organizations like food banks and religious groups for the effort. Medi-Cal members could also get incentives of their own, like grocery cards, when they get vaccinated.
“Health equity is of paramount importance to us, and that includes access to vaccines,” said agency Director Will Lightbourne. “Raising COVID-19 vaccination rates among Medi-Cal beneficiaries is essential for those individuals and the state as a whole. California will only be safe when everyone is safe.”
Cary Sanders, senior policy director for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, said the funds could be critical to boosting rates, as long as “they are going to plans that have demonstrated a capacity to meet the needs of their diverse beneficiaries.”
“We’re very concerned about the vaccination rates as well, and we know in some areas that by as much as 30% Medi-Cal recipients are getting vaccinated at lower rates,” Sanders said. “We certainly think there has to be a role for racially, ethnically diverse community-based partners and health centers to help fill that gap.”
Half of the funding comes from the state General Fund, the other half from federal aid, and will last through February 2022.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Gavin Newsom announces plans to spend $350 million to vaccinate Medi-Cal recipients. Here’s why."