California´s soaring healthcare costs bode ill for the budget

Sacramento — California´s budget, which bounced back after years of deficits, is now being squeezed by rising healthcare costs for the poor and for retired state workers. The mountain of medical bills threatens to undermine Gov. Jerry Brown´s efforts to strengthen state finances — his central promise of the past four years. Enrollment in the state´s healthcare program for the poor, known as Medi-Cal, has exploded by 50% since President Obama´s signature law took effect. Although the federal government picks up most of the tab, state costs have also been growing, and faster than expected. Meanwhile, the annual bill for

Years ago, I worked down on Jerrold Avenue. The area around the Produce Market, including Potrero Hill was a $hit hole.

Yes. I grew up in the Mission District on the north side of Goat Hill (Bernal Heights). Back in the fifties a bunch of streets weren't paved yet and you had to walk to another block to fetch your car. Me and my friends played around Jerrold Avenue and the warehouses, especially the junkyards and slaughterhouses (still remember the smell), sometimes we played in the public housing highrises, having no concept of danger. It was a $hit hole as you say. I helped my dad every weekend shopping at the produce market where we got food on the cheap (dented canned goods etc.) As you say, the renaissance is stunning. Particularly all the biotech building at China Basin, unrecognizable compared to the eyesore it was. I used to fish there as a boy near the drawbridge, dirty area but now it's McCovey Cove. The whole city is cleaned up. All the blacks left for cheaper towns' housing. My oldest is a grad of UC Berkeley, now working at Genentech - they built several dozen large buildings in South SF and modernized the whole area at the bayshore, real beautiful now. People have no idea how nice things have become here.

The “domestic migration” chart shows what happened to California years ago setting the stage for where we are today. The steep inward migration during WWII was essentially people coming here to work building war materiel, a large percentage of whom were Black. The shipyards, and aircraft plants drew them. Richmond, CA had a large Kaiser Shipyard turning out Liberty and later Victory ships. There was also so a Ford plant there turning out military vehicles. Richmond became a “black” city back then and it still is today, but unfortunately all that manufacturing left right after the war leaving the new immigrants with nothing to do, so they went on public assistance and continued to procreate. When you add to that the 5 million “illegals” we currently harbor from Mexico, it’s easy to see why the percentages are so high. But California is not a “poor” state. Real estate here is very high and it is in short supply (at least it is here in the Bay Area). That in and of itself is forcing some people to leave (some are cashing out their RE mother lode when they retire and move to Nevada or some other neighboring state where the cost of living is lower). Others are leaving because they can’t afford to live here. So California is “peachy” for some, but not for others. Personally, it doesn’t bother me that people are leaving, but unfortunately we are still growing with the wrong kind of people.
Municipal bankruptcies are becoming more common and that will increase. The state cannot bankroll these bankruptcies because it hangs on the precipice of financial disaster itself. I keep hoping that it’s financial circumstances will force it to change, but thus far the smoke and mirrors is hiding the truth. Failing everything else, the collapse will come, but unlike places like Detroit, it’s likely to take longer.

Just going to chime in here.....

You totally sound like a Cali liberal....

I mean really....

I don't think you want to see the real statistic's.....

I'm a born and bred Californian. My family was the same....

But we left because of what I saw....over and over, and over....!!

You will have the last word....I know.

“I’m a born and bred Californian. My family was the same....
But we left because of what I saw....over and over, and over....!!”

I guess our experiences in California have been vastly different, or you managed to live where things were not so good. I’ve lived in the same East Bay town for 50 years, and I grew up ten miles from where we live today. Now, is it like it was in 1950, no, but at my age with two homes and a business, I have no reason to leave. Call me inappropriate names if it suits you. I know what kind of a person I am so your comments don’t mean anything.
You just leave me wondering if you would have had the balls to fight the British? Or would you have just cut and run because it would have been too hard and dangerous. The biggest problem this country faces today is that people are too busy with their “own lives,” to even try and figure out what’s wrong and what they can do to try and fix it. It pains me to say it, but by and large, Gruber is right.

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