Straight from the halls of Washington D.C., local representatives joined forces with Santa Clara County officials Tuesday to defend the most vulnerable against sweeping federal cuts they say could devastate California’s second-largest public health and hospital system.
Reps. Sam Liccardo and Zoe Lofgren, from Districts 16 and 18 respectively, rallied alongside County Executive James Williams outside Santa Clara Valley Medical Center to call for a stop to Medicaid cuts, known as Medi-Cal in California. The county relies on federal funding to serve its hospital system’s patients, roughly half of whom use Medi-Cal. It received $1.9 billion this year in Medi-Cal reimbursements that covered patient costs — the largest source of federal revenue the county receives.
@sanjosespotlight Straight from the halls of Washington D.C., local representatives joined forces with Santa Clara County officials Tuesday to defend the most vulnerable against sweeping federal cuts they say could devastate California’s second-largest public health and hospital system. Reps. Sam Liccardo and Zoe Lofgren, from Districts 16 and 18 respectively, rallied alongside County Executive James Williams outside Santa Clara Valley Medical Center to call for a stop to Medicaid cuts, known as Medi-Cal in California. The county relies on federal funding to serve its hospital system’s patients, roughly half of whom use Medi-Cal. It received $1.9 billion this year in Medi-Cal reimbursements that covered patient costs — the largest source of federal revenue the county receives. Learn more at SanJoseSpotlight.com. #sanjose #siliconvalley #medical #medicaid #federalfunding #publichealth #congress #localnews #hospital
The cuts could put lives at risk, lengthen wait times for patients and further strain Santa Clara County’s four public hospitals, once Regional Medical Center’s sale closes April 1, along with 14 health care clinics countywide.
Liccardo, former mayor of San Jose, said the potential health care cuts are personal because his mother was a nurse and he knows loved ones who could directly benefit from Medi-Cal.
“Health care is so critical in our community and we see the impacts every single day. There is nothing more important for us to support,” Liccardo told San José Spotlight.
The effort is part of a national political push to save funding for Medicaid as Congress considers $880 billion in spending cuts over the next decade in the health care and energy sectors.
Lofgren said her grandmother used Medi-Cal when she was in a nursing home. Lofgren worked on health care needs when she served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors from 1980 to 1994.
“If you think that these cuts won’t relate to you and it’s somebody else, think again,” she said. “The emergency rooms that serve everybody are only there if the hospitals are open. And how will they stay open across our state with this level of reduction?”
County money supports the hospital system on top of federal dollars. It costs the county $4 billion annually, or $33%, from its $12 billion budget to run the hospitals.
But officials, including Williams, warn the county could easily find itself $100 million to $500 million short next fiscal year as a result of congressional spending decisions.
The county’s hospital costs, driven mostly by payroll and supplies, routinely outpace revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars. That requires the county to make up the difference every year out of its general fund, the county’s largest discretionary fund fed by taxpayer dollars. This year the county had to use nearly $600 million from the general fund to cover the shortfall. The county faced a $250 million deficit last year compounded by a major nurses strike last April.
The budget cuts would fall on Williams, who staunchly advocated for the county’s more than $500 million purchase and restoration of Regional Medical Center for vulnerable residents in East San Jose. He said when he was a student and his wife was laid off before the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010, which expanded Medicaid’s coverage, their deductible was $10,000 just as their first child was born.
“We had to scramble and that’s the reality — it’s the reality in this country,” Williams told San José Spotlight. “Our health care system’s the heart of what we do. It’s the heart of how we provide safety services, it’s the heart of how we take care of people.”
The budget cuts would affect San Jose resident Hoang Truong, who would have to spend half his family’s income on health insurance without Medi-Cal. The program helped cover care for his newborn daughter last April.
“Medi-Cal (helps) a lot of my family because even if we had outside insurance, right now, the copay is a lot,” Truong told San José Spotlight. “Right now, with the higher living costs in San Jose, that’s a big financial burden.”
Dr. Patricia Salmon, president of the medical staff for the Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System and chief endocrinologist, said she remembers what it was like before Medi-Cal’s coverage expanded. She saw patients with diabetes who had ulcers on their feet that wouldn’t heal because they couldn’t afford preventative care.
“We go into medicine to help everyone, not just certain people,” Salmon told San José Spotlight. “It’s really disheartening to see certain portions of our community suffer needlessly.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
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