Medi-Cal Problems

I read with no surprise your article “More Doctors Shun Medi-Cal Prenatal Coverage” (Oct. 24). Sadly, I must report that I too have stopped taking Medi-Cal despite my strong liberal feelings and concern for the poor.

My problem is not the terrible pay of less than one-third of a normal fee; I can live with that for some patients. The problem is the horrible bureaucracy. The state agency makes collection so time-consuming and irritating that my office manager refuses to do their billing, and I don’t blame her. Therefore, I have to pay someone else extra money for doing the laborious paper work when full pay doesn’t even cover the overhead.

Somehow, our Medi-Cal administrators have found a way to combine the worst of capitalism and socialism in our bureaucracy. Perhaps it is a conspiracy to cripple help for the poor because it sure works that way.

I take a modest number of very-low-pay patients to assuage my social conscience. If the “system” ever figures out a way to run Medi-Cal competently, I’ll be glad to be reactivated.

LARRY MEYERS

Tustin

Meyers is a clinical psychologist.