Another in a series of columns answering consumers’ questions about California’s changing medical landscape. Six months after her mother died in 2014, Karen Craig opened her mailbox to find a bill for $9,530.06. It came from Medi-Cal, the state’s version of the Medicaid program for low-income people, which was seeking repayment for her mother’s medical care even though she had used her coverage just once, for a routine wellness exam. (Her mother’s medical costs were primarily covered by Medicare, the federal program for seniors, Craig says.) “I was just shocked and panicked,” says Craig, a Central Coast resident. In the ensuing months, Craig learned that Medi-Cal’s “Estate Recovery Program”...
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