Sacramento – The California Medical Association called on President Obama today to fix the flaws with Medi-Cal and Medicare, the government’s two biggest health care programs, as part of efforts to reform health care and extend coverage to those who are uninsured.

“California’s physicians are strong advocates of providing universal access to health care,” said Dr. Dev A. GnanaDev, CMA president. “We believe President Obama’s stated guiding principle – ‘fix what’s broken, build upon what works’ – is the right idea, and we are glad he has made health reform a top priority this year.

“One primary objective must be removing the current barriers to care in Medi-Cal and Medicare and ensuring any ‘public option’ that is part of the reform plan gives patients true access to doctors, not a false promise of coverage.”

Leading congressional proposals suggest expanding Medicare or Medicaid as part of the plan to cover the uninsured, but CMA believes the major problems in those two programs must be rectified before the government builds upon them or creates a complementary public insurance option.

Medi-Cal, the government health care program for the poor, serves 6 million Californians, but many have difficulty finding a doctor to see them. That’s because chronic underfunding has forced doctors to quit taking Medi-Cal patients or drop out of the program altogether.

Medicare has similar issues. Both programs have onerous administrative requirements that discourage doctors from participating and delivering the care that California’s seniors and poor need and deserve.

Medi-Cal reimbursement rates have not been increased since 2001, despite the fact that inflation has increased almost 20 percent in that time. The result is low physician participation and more Medi-Cal patients heading to expensive emergency rooms for treatment. According to a 2006 report by the California HealthCare Foundation, 31 percent of Medi-Cal recipients visited an emergency room within the previous 12 months, while only 18 percent of Californians who are uninsured visited an ER in the same period, suggesting that Medi-Cal enrollees may have even less access to primary and preventative care than the uninsured.

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The California Medical Association represents more than 35,000 physicians in all modes of practice and specialties. CMA is dedicated to the health of all patients in California.