In Shasta County, approximately 66,000 individuals rely on Partnership HealthPlan of California for their health care needs, according to Brandon Thornock, CEO of Shasta Community Health Center. In a county of roughly 180,000, that’s more than one in three of the entire population. This ratio is even greater in the more rural and frontier parts of Shasta county, where there is a higher prevalence of lower-income individuals and families.
Brandon Thornock, CEO of Shasta Community healthcare, joins the Exchange to discuss.
Many northern Californian residents don’t realize that the insurance called "Partnership" administers Medicaid (aka Medi-Cal) in 24 northern counties, including Shasta County. In California, the federal government pays 50% of the Medicaid expenses for most services.
Healthcare providers to the lowest income populations rely on reimbursement from Medicaid. The prospect of seeing reductions in reimbursement would have an immediate chilling effect, or worse, said Thornock in an article in the Redding Record Searchlight. It could mean scaling down healthcare services and/or remove some services altogether.
