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<strong>New America Media</strong></p>
<p>Like most severely mentally ill patients, 23-year-old Daniel Padilla doesn’t see himself as that.</p>
<p>The insurance companies that cover him – Medi-Cal (California’s name for Medicaid, the federal-state-funded insurance for low-income and disabled people) and United Health Insurance — don’t see the schizophrenia he was diagnosed with at age 19, as deserving the same benefits as someone with a medical condition.</p>