You won't find one who takes Medi-Cal near home. Come back next year. Having Medi-Cal doesn't guarantee service because there aren't enough providers. The health care for more than one-fifth of California children is paid by these programs. California's high cost of living affects doctors like everyone else.
Many pediatric specialists are high-tailing it out of state.
A two-tiered system California's publicly funded programs for children pay doctors some of the lowest rates in the nation. They're far below the rates paid by private insurance and far below the rates for Medicare, which covers older adults. More but not enough Medi-Cal payments to physicians did go up about 20 percent in 1998 and will go up a similar amount next year. But payments will still fall short of what it actually costs the doctor to see each patient. Kris Calvin, executive director of the California chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says it would take something more like a 150 or 200 percent increase to cover costs.