Medicaid health plans across the nation are bolstering outreach to low-income households as federal restrictions under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect. The law cuts more than 900 billion dollars in federal funding for Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) and slashes around 187 billion dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. As a result, up to 3.4 million Medi-Cal recipients and almost 400,000 CalFresh beneficiaries could lose benefits.
CalOptima, a public Medicaid managed-care entity in Orange County, California, launched a 20 million dollar campaign to help low-income residents get and maintain health coverage and food benefits. More than 3,000 people turned up at a November CalOptima event in Orange County. The health plan has allocated up to 2 million dollars through the end of 2028 to pay for county eligibility workers at events, funding that can help pay for critical outreach the county otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.
Orange County has about 1,500 eligibility workers to handle reenrollments and verification checks for around 850,000 Medi-Cal members and over 300,000 CalFresh recipients. “We are talking about families who desperately need help especially at a time when food costs and inflation is high and they’re barely able to make it,” said An Tran, head of Orange County’s Social Services Agency. Similar outreach efforts are underway in other states: L.A. Care Health Plan launched community information sessions in Los Angeles County, Hawaii’s AlohaCare is mobilizing a COVID-era coalition, and Community Behavioral Health in Philadelphia plans to host a series of summits next year.
California is drafting guidance for counties on how to implement federal Medicaid eligibility changes. The federal work rules and twice-yearly eligibility checks are slated to take effect by the start of 2027, applying to enrollees under the Affordable Care Act coverage expansion.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.courant.com/2025/12/24/medicaid-health-plans-step-up-outreach-efforts-ahead-of-gop-changes/