Brown: Counties must pay for Medicaid expansion

Gov. Jerry Brown is meeting with county officials from throughout California as he tries to expand the state’s health care program for the poor and transfer some state responsibilities to local governments.

The Democratic governor told the California State Association of Counties on Wednesday that California cannot afford to “double-pay” as it expands Medi-Cal as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Brown said he expects counties to return about $300 million to cover 2 million to 3 million people in the next fiscal year.

County officials say they cannot predict their costs and still will be responsible for covering millions of uninsured people.

CSAC Executive Director Matt Cate says the counties are willing to pay but don’t want to end up even worse financially than they are now.