CA: The road to budgetary hell is paved with good intentions

Sac Bee ^ | 1/25/04 | Daniel Weintraub

[NormsRevenge]

A relatively new government program meant to ease emotional pain in young people, treat serious mental illness and keep disturbed children from needing institutional care has grown from a speck in the budget to more than $800 million in less than 10 years.

[NormsRevenge]

How does your tax bill grow? Quite well, Thank You!

[NormsRevenge]

.

[John Jorsett]

A flyer distributed by the Department of Mental Health informing potential clients of the service notes that the program is available to anyone under 21 who is eligible for the state Medi-Cal program and is experiencing "sadness, nervousness or anger that makes your life difficult." Clients are advised that they can "ask for counseling or therapy as often as once a week or more if you think you need it."

This reminds me of the radio ads a few years back. They were telling parents to bring their kids in if they were acting sad or depressed or just a little odd. They were seeking kids with insurance whom they could 'treat' until the coverage ran out. There was one case where a kid was essentially imprisoned in a mental facility until he hit the limits of his parent's policy for mental health coverage. When he got out, he looked like a survivor from Auschwitz: covered in sores, emaciated, dirty, and addled from the psychoactive drugs they had pumped him full of. How much you want to bet that there's that sort of thing going on at state expense in this program too?

[marsh2]

Last year, our small County of 45,000 spent almost $13 million on "Behavioral Health" services. These funds are outside the General Fund of $30 million that funds basic county government functions such as sheriff, fire, auditor, assessor, tax collector, adminstrator D.A., clerk.

Of the $13 million, about $11 million was for services other than substance abuse and CaLWorks. This was a climb of about $3.5 million over the prior fiscal year of 02/03. (Keep in mind that we basically serve Medi-Cal eligible - excluding Medicare and discouraging non-emergency other insurance.)

[William Tell]

"Captain, I think that we need more chairs over on the port side of the ship. Otherwise the passengers will have to view the icebergs standing up."

[gcruse]

Sounds like a job for these guys.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

How much you want to bet that there's that sort of thing going on at state expense in this program too?

LOTS!!

Which politician will vote to turn these programs off though???

[tubebender]

I think I heard there are 800 nonprofits in Humboldt County. If they were one firm they would be the largest employer here...