Medi-cal cheats the poor

The California HealthCare Foundation’s report on Medi-Cal (“Recipients give Medi-Cal mostly high marks,” May 31) might lead Chronicle readers to believe that low-income residents feel secure in California’s safety net for health care.

As doctors who served low-income families, we have strong convictions that Medi-Cal has design flaws that must be addressed. Medi-Cal reimbursements to providers are so low that patients often have difficulty finding a doctor for primary care, and access to specialists can be particularly difficult.

In many urban areas, Medi-Cal recipients receive health care mainly at overburdened county hospitals and community health centers where dedicated staff and administrators are continually challenged by inadequate funding and threats of further cutbacks. We view the stories told by Medi-Cal recipients as testaments to their individual resiliency and not an assurance that society is providing them with full access to high-quality care.

In spite of our lofty ideal of equal opportunity, the United States is unique among industrialized countries in segregating our poor in a separate and definitely not equal health insurance program. Isn’t it time we provided one high standard of universal health care? We need an improved and expanded Medicare for all.

Li-hsia Wang, M.D., Henry Abrons, M.D., Berkeley