Lurie Eyes $34 Million to Cushion H.R. 1 Blows to Medi-Cal and CalFresh

The upcoming restrictions will only apply to new CalFresh and Medi-Cal applicants. Current recipients in California will only be subject to these rules once they recertify their benefits.

But Lurie, who is currently working to balance the budget, proposed a way to cushion the blows posed by a more stringent federal guideline — setting aside $34 million for retaining staff that would help San Franciscans navigate the new measures necessary to continue receiving federal aid.

“While federal cuts make it harder for San Franciscans to access healthcare and put food on the table, this budget will protect our city’s social safety net and help residents stay on the benefits they rely on,” Lurie said in a statement on Thursday. Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, described the federal bill as death by bureaucracy.

“They ascribed all of these new requirements as a way to reduce the number of people who successfully receive healthcare through Obamacare,” Rhorer said.

He called it “a sinister approach to undoing one of the most successful domestic policy changes in the last four decades.”

If passed, hiring for what Lurie estimated as over 150 staffers would not begin until July — once his budget passes through the Board of Supervisors. About half of those employees would work directly with clients to help them find jobs, navigate the paperwork processes and do monthly check-ins to confirm they’re working. The remainder will work as “employment training specialists” to help clients choose the right classes to level up their job skills.

Rhorer said that as his team works to protect the Medi-Cal and CalFresh recipients at risk of losing coverage, this additional staffing will be necessary in helping “mitigate the harm to clients that the authors of H.R. 1 actually intend to occur.”