California Court of Appeal

Approval of defendant county's financial eligibility standard for "last resort" medical care, which denies any services for individuals who earn more than $1,078 per month and also limits the provision of subsistence medical care to residents who have assets of $2,000 or less, is reversed where defendant's eligibility standard is void because it is based upon an inflexible income cap that denies any medical care to indigent residents, in particular the working poor, whose monthly salary exceeds that cap by even $1, without consideration of their ability to pay for some or all of their medical care.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/23/2007
• Published 05/23/2007

Judges

• NARES, Acting P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Western Center on Law and Poverty, Inc., Richard A. Rothschild, Los Angeles, Robert D. Newman, Catherine S. Murphy;  Fish & Richardson and Lara S. Garner, San Diego, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• John J. Sansone, County Counsel, C. Ellen Pilsecki and Timothy M. Barry, Deputy County Counsel, for Defendants and Respondents.