SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) As the fourth largest economy in the world, California has developed a robust safety net for all Californians through the Medi-Cal program.

(b) This safety net, composed of physicians, clinics, hospitals, dentists, and other critical health care providers, provides care to over 14,000,000 Californians, including one-half of all births and one in three Californians.

(c) Medi-Cal enrollees are primarily from ethnic and racial minorities, including 7,300,000 Latino Californians, 1,400,000 Californians of Asian or Pacific Islander descent, 1,000,000 African American Californians, and 55,000 from American Indian or Alaskan Native communities.

(d) Nearly 1,300,000 children receive health insurance through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), administered through the Medi-Cal program.

(e) Successful efforts to achieve universal health care coverage have not been accompanied by equitable access to health care and providers. This lack of access to health care professionals has exacerbated health inequities and disparities within California, which was felt in sharp relief during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

(f) Across the board, Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for services have not been raised since the early 1990s. In fact, Medi-Cal providers experienced rate cuts in 2008 and 2011, which have not been fully restored, as part of California’s response to the economic recession. Since the early 1990s, the dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.44 percent per year, producing a cumulative price increase of over 106 percent.

(g) The Medi-Cal program and its provider network have been significantly challenged in previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, workforce shortages, and rapidly increasing costs of delivering care. The Medi-Cal program has not kept pace with these demands and an influx of new resources is critical to the safety net’s overall stability.

(h) In order to achieve true universal access as promised, provider rates need to be increased to ensure a California for all.

(i) California’s health care system needs stable, reliable funding. Patients, regardless of their income level or health insurance, need access to high-quality care. This includes care in a doctor’s office, a clinic, or a hospital. California patients deserve the care they need when they need it.

SEC. 2.

 It is the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation that would do all of the following:

(a) Increase funding for the Medi-Cal program and increase the reimbursement rates for its network of safety net providers.

(b) Increase access to health care services for millions of low-income families in order to reduce health care inequities and disparities in underserved and ethnically and geographically diverse communities across California.

(c) Ensure that Californians covered under Medi-Cal have equal access to the health care providers they rely upon for their care as commercially insured Californians have.

(d) Designate a funding source that will maximize federal investment in the Medi-Cal program.