Quick Take
Plans by congressional Republicans to trim billions from Medicaid and introduce work requirements could destabilize hospitals and health clinics across South County and the Pajaro Valley, where nearly 80% of patients rely on Medi-Cal or Medicare programs.
For Nora Yerena, co-founder of nonprofit Raíces y Cariño, which provides supportive resources and workshops for families in Watsonville, having Medi-Cal coverage over the past 13 years has been a lifesaver.
Nearly 14 years ago, Yerena’s daughter was born prematurely and initially spent three days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Yerena’s insurance provider at the time told her the company was debating whether it could cover the cost of her infant daughter’s hospital stay, she said. The initial bill had totaled to $252,000, Yerena said, and her daughter still had six more weeks in the ICU.
If Yerena hadn’t registered for Medi-Cal, she and her family would not have been able to afford the necessary care for her daughter that was not covered by her original insurer, she said.
“I’m here to ask you to take a minute to think about your own families and what would happen if you suddenly didn’t have health care, health insurance and you had no way to afford it. What would that mean?” she said.
Yerena joined South County health care leaders and professionals Monday morning outside of Watsonville Community Hospital to warn the community about potential impacts to the local health care system if proposed cuts to Medicaid are passed.
In Santa Cruz County, alone, more than 86,000 people are enrolled in Medi-Cal, said Jen Herrera, assistant director of Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency. Nearly half of those people enrolled reside in the Pajaro Valley, she said.
House Republicans unveiled legislation Sunday targeting Medicaid — a joint federal and state program that helps cover the costs for low-income families — as part of efforts to cut $880 billion from the federal budget. Medicaid also provides funding for the state-run program, Medi-Cal. The GOP proposal would add limits on eligibility criteria, such as submitting employment verification, said Watsonville Community Hospital CEO Stephen Gray.
The legislation would require Medi-Cal and Medicaid recipients to register for health care benefits twice a year, Gray said. Recipients would also have to prove that they are working, volunteering or enrolled in school for at least 80 hours a month — Gray said there’s no details on what type of documents would be needed to verify someone’s employment, school or volunteer commitments.
The people who are most at risk of losing their Medi-Cal coverage are working-class people who won’t be able to keep up with the constant paperwork, said Gray.
Nearly 80% of patients at Watsonville Community Hospital are covered by either Medi-Cal or Medicare, and over half of the hospital’s revenue comes from federal and state coverage, Gray said. The hospital is still trying to figure out how the proposed changes could affect the cost of health care for Watsonville residents, and the hospital’s financial stability, he said.
Medi-Cal and Medicare are the foundation of care at Salud Para La Gente. Nearly 80% of its patients are covered by these programs, said Donna Young, the CEO of the nonprofit, which runs 13 health service sites across Santa Cruz and North Monterey counties for low-income families.
If the cuts go through, 21,000 of the clinic’s patients throughout the Pajaro Valley could lose access to critical health care, which will only increase existing health disparities, Young said. Many of the 27,000 patients whom Salud Para La Gente serves across the Pajaro Valley are low-income farmworking families, she said.
“We are deeply concerned about the proposed federal cuts to Medi-Cal and strongly oppose anything that limits our patients ability to get the care that they need,” Young said.
The clinics — which are federally qualified health centers — are also at risk of losing grants from the federal level that could lead to financial problems and result in fewer services available to the community, said Young. Salud Para La Gente helps address anything impacting patients’ health, such as providing transportation to and from clinic visits, food assistance and language support for patients who speak Spanish or Mixteco.
People don’t go away just because they don’t have health insurance, said Dr. Devon Francis, chief medical officer for Salud Para La Gente.
In order to keep doors open, clinics, hospitals and other health care providers may be forced to increase prices they charge private insurers to make up for the uncompensated care, Francis said. This means everyone’s health care premiums could increase, and so will the cost of health care, she said.
“We’ve made real progress in expanding health care access, and we cannot afford to go backward. We need to take action and care for our community together,” Francis said.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.