Kate, This may be some good news - I have one friend, not below the poverty line, but without health insurance who just had a brain tumor removed by the top surgeon at Cedars Sinai (top hospital) and was put in a gorgeous suite and Medi-Cal paid for all of it without a hitch. I have another friend also not below the poverty line but without insurance, who needs some serious complicated surgery done and Medi-Cal is paying for him to have the top surgeon from USC perform the surgery. I had to use Medi-Cal about 25 years ago when I had a job but didn't have insurance and there was no red tape at all and no restrictions on who I went to. Kakki
> Not sure if they have changed California's Medi-Cal eligibility but it used > to be only available to very low income (i.e. below the poverty line) > residents. It also used to be mostly (not always) pretty low quality health > care, one reason being that only a very few doctors were willing to accept > it.
