“The preventable death of millions will be impossible to ignore.”
California Republicans Chose Tax Breaks for Big Corporations Over Health Care for People Fighting Cancer, Seniors in Nursing Homes, Children, Seniors, Home Care Workers, People with Disabilities, Veterans, and Reproductive Care
SACRAMENTO, CA—California Republicans cast deciding votes to pass a budget bill containing the biggest health care cuts in American history. After promising to protect Medicaid, Reps. David Valadao (CA-22) and Young Kim (CA-40) both voted yes on the bill which contains nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. Their votes come after turning a deaf ear to their own constituents, who spent the last six months pouring their hearts out in protests, phone calls, and letters detailing the incredible human and financial cost Medicaid cuts will have on their families, households, and community.
Constituents and members of the Fight for Our Health coalition of seniors, people with disabilities, health care workers, caregivers, veterans, and children’s and health care advocates pointed to analyses from health care experts showing the cuts would result in millions of Californians losing health care, thousands dying, and widespread health care impacts in the form of higher costs, likely hospital closures, longer ER wait times, and worse health care outcomes.
Cutting Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California) is extremely unpopular with voters, regardless of party. Trump voters oppose cutting Medicaid to pay for tax cuts by a 15% point margin. That’s why GOP pollsters and strategists have warned Congress that Medicaid cuts will haunt Republicans in the November elections.
Republican leaders in Congress dismissed these concerns saying people who lose health care will simply “get over it,” before the next election; but constituents of Rep. Valadao and Kim have promised they won’t forget.
“Reps. David Valadao and Young Kim promised they would vote against any proposal that threatened to close rural hospitals and caused the cost of care to soar for working people, but we now know that was a lie: that’s exactly what they voted for in Trump’s deadly bill,” said Amanda McAllister-Wallner, Executive Director of Health Access. “Their vote could have made the difference in protecting health care for millions of Californians. But instead, both opted to support corporate tax cuts over the health of their constituents, put rural hospitals and community clinics at risk of closure, increase emergency room wait times, and make health care more expensive for everyone. America can only be as great if its people are healthy, and can access care when they need it – including at Planned Parenthood clinics; but President Trump seems to have no interest in making America great – only sicker, poorer, and closer to death.”
“California Republicans in Congress have betrayed their constituents, rushing through the largest health care cuts in the nation’s history,” said Kiran Savage-Sangwan, Executive Director of California Pan-Ethnic Health Network. “Now millions of Californians will have to grapple with a new reality, where super wealthy CEOs get huge tax breaks while the rest of us have to give up our health care and pay more or travel further just to get basic care. These reckless Medi-Cal cuts threaten not just health care but will tear at the fabric of society. Health care experts predict thousands will die in the coming years, and their preventable deaths will be impossible for us – and our elected representatives – to ignore.”
“California House Republicans betrayed working people and demonstrated their true colors, putting our jobs and our lives on the line to lavish more tax breaks on the ultra-rich. They took these votes knowing full well that their votes will mean catastrophe for working families. People will die waiting for health care because these Republicans closed hospitals, especially in rural areas, and clinics and hospitals across the state will close, leading to thousands of lost jobs in healthcare,” said Mayra Castañeda, an Ultrasound Technologist and member of SEIU-UHW’s Executive Committee.
“This result is outright devastating. Congressional Republicans knew this would devastate access to health care across the board. They knew it included a backdoor abortion ban. They knew that defunding Planned Parenthood would impact vulnerable people across the country, including the nearly one million patients who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers in California for reproductive health care each year. But they simply did not care,” said Jodi Hicks, CEO and President of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. ”While Congressional Republicans knowingly voted to harm people, the Planned Parenthood affiliates in California will continue to uphold our values and fight every single day to ensure all Californians can access the care they need and deserve, no matter what.”
Despite promises they wouldn’t vote for a bill that harmed vulnerable Californians with cuts to Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California), Valadao and Kim both supported Trump’s budget bill – which terminates care for millions of Californians including people with cancer, veterans, and people working for low-wages who don’t get health care from their jobs and can’t afford high premiums on their own. Changes made in the Senate bring the total health care cuts to nearly a trillion dollars. Impacts of the deepest cuts to health care in the nation’s history include:
- Terminating health care for parents who care full time for children older than 13.
- Slashing billions dollars more from California hospitals with new provisions that penalizing California’s leadership in expanding health care to more people and families with low incomes.
- Increasing the risks of hospital and nursing home closures, meaning entire communities will have to travel further for essential care, everyone will experience longer waits at ERs, and families will be forced to quit working to care for elderly loved ones because there will be no space in nursing homes.
- Penalizing rural hospitals. Even though Senators are hiding behind a “rural health” fund they added, this is a tiny tiny band aid over a massive cut. The bill cuts $155 billion from rural health in perpetuity, while the funds meant to plug the gap amount to only $10 billion per year for 5 years.
- Driving up the cost of health care, destabilizing the private insurance marketplace and increasing consumer medical debt. In addition to the cuts to Medicaid, this bill would make premiums and out of pocket costs in Covered California more expensive and lead to a sicker risk pool which would raise costs for everyone, compounding the affordability crisis for Californians already struggling with the price of groceries, rent, and other necessities.
- Defunds Planned Parenthood. Federal law already prohibits Medicaid dollars from covering abortion services, but the Senate proposal would prohibit all Medicaid reimbursement to any health center that offers abortion services, even if many of the services rendered are otherwise covered under the Medicaid program (such as contraceptive services, cancer screening, testing and treatment for sexually, and prenatal and postpartum care for new parents).
