It now costs $10,000 or more per person annually to treat someone with diabetes than someone who doesn’t have the chronic disease, according to a new analysis of large insurance company claims data. Spending per capita on health care for people with diabetes was just shy of $15,000 in 2013. By comparison, $4,305 was spent in the same year on people who didn’t have diabetes, according to claims information for people under age 65 with employer-sponsored insurance.
Illegal immigrants would get Medi-Cal under California bill. Senate Bill 4 will make taxpayer funded healthcare available to more than a million illegal immigrants for Medi-Cal, the state's health program for the poor.
Extending state-subsidized healthcare coverage to people in the country illegally could cost California as much as $740 million annually, according to a Senate fiscal analysis. Around 900,000 immigrants in the state would qualify, according to the analysis, and would be eligible for Medi-Cal and other state programs.
5 percent of Medicaid patients account for half of program's costs. GAO found that from 2009 to 2011, 5 percent of enrollees in Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, made up 48 percent of costs; the most expensive 1 percent made up 25 percent of costs.
