It’s a trade aimed at getting more doctors to treat poorer patients: California this week said it will help repay the student loans of 247 selected doctors in exchange for their promise that at least 30% of their caseload will be people enrolled in Medi-Cal.
The $60 million student loan repayment, CalHealthCares, is funded by the state tobacco tax that voters increased three years ago.
It’s all part of California’s effort to try to increase the number of doctors who accept Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid health insurer of low-income residents, which has been plagued by shortages — due both to the state’s paltry rates for doctors in its provider network and to the substantial increase in the number of residents on Medi-Cal. California has one of the lowest Medicaid reimbursement rates in the country, and patients wait months, or longer, to see specialists.