by Suzanne Potter
This week, dozens of health care advocates rallied in Sacramento, asking lawmakers to find ways to shield Californians from massive federal cuts to Medi-Cal.
Republicans in Congress passed a huge budget bill called House Resolution 1 last summer, which cut $1 trillion from Medicaid nationwide.
Asm. Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, is chair of the State Assembly Health Committee.
“It means over $30 billion every single year have been ripped out of the hands of Medi-Cal recipients: 3.4 million Californians,” Bonta outlined.
Republicans defended the cuts as necessary to fund other administration priorities, including tax cuts and increased immigration enforcement. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January budget proposal continues limits on Medi-Cal for undocumented people and some lawfully present immigrants while adding additional restrictions to immigrant care. Lawmakers begin negotiating the state budget next week.
Amanda McAllister-Wallner, executive director of the advocacy coalition Health Access, said lawmakers should raise revenue from large corporations in order to blunt the worst effects of the federal cuts.
“H.R.1 wasn’t only a cut to health care, it was the largest redistribution of wealth in American history,” McAllister-Wallner contended. “Cutting services for the most vulnerable in order to put money in the pockets of the richest Americans and most profitable corporations, many of whom live and do business right here in California.”
Rachel Linn Gish, interim deputy director of Health Access, said California can ease federal work reporting requirements and eligibility checks, which she described as administrative hurdles designed to push people off Medi-Cal. However, she added, procedural changes alone will not prevent widespread coverage losses.
“We are on the precipice of a huge public health crisis if our state does not take action,” Gish argued. “It will be in the state budget that these decisions about whether to cut our care or protect our care are going to be made.”
Advocates at the rally warned that deep Medi-Cal reductions could strain emergency rooms, force clinic closures, and increase long-term health costs statewide. They stressed that Medi-Cal supports not only low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities, but also rural hospitals and safety-net providers that rely on the program to stay open. As budget talks begin, protesters urged lawmakers to treat health care as essential infrastructure, not a line item to be sacrificed.
