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County staff warn HR1 and state budget changes could shrink CalFresh, Medi‑Cal access and raise administrative costs
Summary
County administrators told the board that federal HR1 tax and program changes plus California budget choices could reduce SNAP (CalFresh) and Medi‑Cal benefits, shift program costs to state and counties, and increase county administrative workloads and costs; staff stressed numbers are provisional pending federal guidance.
County staff briefed the Board of Supervisors on projected local impacts from federal House Bill 1 (HR1) and recent California budget actions, focusing on CalFresh (SNAP) and Medi‑Cal.
Debbie Mon, assistant county administrator, said Solano County has roughly 55,000 CalFresh enrollees; staff warned HR1 could restore work requirements and eliminate certain utility and Internet allowances that previously boosted benefit amounts. Mon said the federal policy changes and state implementation could increase county administrative costs by an estimated $2.2–2.5 million because of shifted cost shares and new compliance needs.
Kelly Curtis, assistant director of Health and Social Services, outlined potential Medi‑Cal effects: enrollment freezes for some non‑citizen groups; new work requirements (80 hours per month for many adults 19–64); more frequent redeterminations (twice annually) that staff estimate would need roughly 14 additional FTEs locally; and penalties tied to federal error‑rate thresholds. Using state estimates and proportional scaling, staff said the county could see thousands of local residents lose coverage under some scenarios (staff used state projections to estimate roughly 33,500 local Medi‑Cal enrollees could be affected under one statewide scenario); staff emphasized that federal and state guidance is not yet final and local impacts remain provisional.
Supervisors requested regular updates and discussed forming an ad hoc committee to explore mitigation strategies, including engagement with local hospitals, workforce development and community providers.
