Local health care providers are pushing back against proposed Medicaid cuts

In early May, dozens of nonprofit and health care leaders assembled outside of Watsonville Community Hospital to altogether issue a desperate plea: hands off our health care.

The message came hours before the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee, which is responsible for health care funding, began debating a Republican-sponsored spending bill in Congress that seeks to cut $880 billion mostly from the budget funding Medicaid, or Medi-Cal as it’s known in California.

The unprecedented slashing of the federal program, established almost 60 years ago, will help pay for $4.5 trillion in planned tax breaks being pushed by the White House. Republicans in the House insist they’re eliminating wasteful spending while Democrats warn that millions of Americans will be dropped from their coverage if the bill becomes law.

Here in Santa Cruz County, almost 90,000 residents are Medi-Cal beneficiaries and many of them go to Watsonville-based Salud Para La Gente to receive care. That’s why Salud’s chief medical officer, Dr. Devon Francis, was present at the press event outside of Watsonville hospital and gave an impassioned speech not just about the harmful impacts of gutting the program, but to also highlight the important role Medi-Cal plays in preserving our health care system more broadly.

Dr. Francis joined Talk of the Bay to share more about why she’s pushing back against the proposed cuts to Medicaid.