This policy brief represents the written testimony presented to California's Little Hoover Commission at a public hearing on August 26, 2010 in Sacramento, CA. The SCAN Foundation's Director of Policy, Lisa Shugarman, PhD, was invited to present on Federal Health Care Reform and its potential impact on California's long‐term care system. Her testimony to the Commissioners responds to three specific questions on this topic:

1. What are the long‐term care provisions in the reform package?;
2. What new opportunities might be available – under health care reform or by way of modeling innovations made in other states – for California to expand its capacity to provide long‐term care services?; and
3. How can we ensure that California takes advantage of these opportunities?

This testimony refers to several provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA, P.L 111‐148).