More than half of children in California rely on Medi-Cal — the California Medicaid program — for their health insurance coverage, including 1.4 million children 5 and under. In some counties including Kern and Fresno, the newly released audit found that average waits for callers stretched longer than an hour and a half. That number was steeper in San Bernardino County, where nearly half of phone calls were cut off because so many people were calling, the audit found. In San Diego, second only to L.A. County in Medi-Cal enrollees, the average wait for callers was just under a minute, the audit found. State Sen. Richard Roth (D-Riverside) said he introduced the bill after hearing about long waits and Californians "being completely unable to get through at all, which is totally unacceptable."

Source: Los Angeles Times August 07, 2024 20:17 UTC