January 1, California Governor Wants Medicaid to Pay Six Months of Rent

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1965: Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights activists complete their march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; two previous marches had been halted by local police..

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wants to use federal Medicaid funds to cover up to six months of rent for residents who are either homeless or close to losing their housing.

While states are prohibited from using Medicaid funding to directly pay rent, Newsom is asking President Joe Biden to OK a loophole. Newsom has requested the Biden administration’s authorization of a new “transitional rent” program under Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid.

“I’ve been talking to the president. We cannot do this alone,” Newsom said.

Newsom argues that investing in experimental housing programs for homeless residents is ultimately cheaper for taxpayers than allowing such individuals to fall into hospitals, nursing homes, or jails.

“Health care and housing can no longer be divorced,” Newsom said in Feb. 2020. “Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin or antibiotics.”

The median rent in California is nearly $3,000 a month, so the program does pose a financial risk. Some experts say the Biden administration is likely to scrutinize the plan.

However, California’s program is modeled after two similar programs in Oregon and Arizona — which Biden’s Medicaid officials have already approved.

The Golden State has maintained the largest homeless population in the U.S. for more than a decade, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Last year, an estimated 30% of homeless people in the U.S. live in California.

Meanwhile, 5% of Medi-Cal patients account for 44% of the program’s spending. Many of the costliest patients are homeless — almost half of homeless patients visited the emergency room four times or more in 2019.

Healthcare experts say that six months of rent would just be putting a band-aid on the larger issue: a lack of affordable housing in California.

“We can design incredible Medicaid policies to alleviate homelessness and pay for all the necessary supportive services, but without the adequate housing, frankly, it’s not going to work,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the University of California-San Francisco’s Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

If approved, rent payments could begin as early as 2025, with an annual price tag of roughly $117 million. Nearly 11,000 are already enrolled in Medi-Cal housing services.

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Sources: The Daily Wire | LA Times