In a stand for healthcare justice, we commend the County Board of Supervisors led by Supervisor Monica Martinez, for championing Medi-Cal funding with a letter to the governor and the California State Association of Counties (CSAC), advocating to preserve these essential benefits in the state’s Fiscal Year 2025-26 Budget.

Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, plays a vital role in ensuring healthcare access for residents across Santa Cruz County — providing access to services that our community cannot afford to lose. Over one-third of the county’s population is insured by the program, with significantly higher enrollment in communities already facing economic and structural inequities. Maintaining Medi-Cal funding is essential not only to sustain access to medical, dental, behavioral health and emergency care but also to reduce health disparities and support the financial stability of key healthcare providers, including local nonprofit safety-net organizations such as the County of Santa Cruz Clinics, Dientes Community Dental Care, Salud Para La Gente, Santa Cruz Community Health Centers, and Watsonville Community Hospital.

Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the uninsured rate in Santa Cruz County has dropped from 19% in 2013 to just 6% in 2022. This progress has been critical for our low-income families and farmworker work force — many of whom rely on Medi-Cal for preventative care. However, cuts to the federal Medicaid program (Medi-Cal in California) will likely decimate the local healthcare system that provides essential access to services. These cost-effective services address health issues before they become acute and chronic. Without sustained Medi-Cal funding, residents who lose coverage are more likely to delay care, leading to avoidable emergency visits and increased costs across the healthcare system, have worsened health outcomes and loss of jobs and reduced economic activity, resulting in lower sales and income tax revenue.

Watsonville Community Hospital stands as a cornerstone of our regional healthcare system and underscores the importance of a well-funded Medi-Cal program. Continued efforts to stabilize and expand its services and maintain a skilled and quality nursing and provider staff, depend heavily on strong Medi-Cal support. Notably, approximately 52% of the county’s Medi-Cal enrollees live in Pajaro Valley and rely on the hospital for essential services.

Reductions in Medi-Cal funding or enrollment, whether from federal actions or state-level budget decisions, would undermine the progress made in expanding healthcare access and would disproportionately harm our most vulnerable populations. Families already walking on financial tightropes would lose coverage for their doctors’ visits, medications and more.

These cuts would harm not only those losing Medi-Cal coverage but trigger a domino effect touching everyone. Such cuts would strain the entire healthcare infrastructure, reduce access through staffing cuts and service rollbacks, and undo significant gains in insurance coverage rates. Overcrowded emergency rooms with extended wait times and hospital resources diverted from true emergencies would follow. Collectively, these cuts would increase uncompensated care, intensify financial pressures on counties, hospitals, and taxpayers, and threaten local healthcare jobs. According to the California Budget & Policy Center, every dollar lost in Medi-Cal funding creates negative ripple effects throughout the economy.

We’ve made too much progress strengthening the local healthcare safety net to turn back now.

We commend Representatives Jimmy Panetta and Zoe Lofgren for their steadfast support during the federal budget process. They are working to preserve this funding. However, even with their herculean efforts, it’s clear federal Medicaid cuts are on the horizon.

At the state level, our delegation has always been champions of community health centers and supported the community’s efforts to save Watsonville Community Hospital. Please contact your state and federal representatives to thank them for fighting for our community’s safety net — find contact information at: Elected Officials of Santa Cruz County. They deserve to hear our community voices and gratitude for their efforts and how they, and we, can continue to be the model of taking care of the most vulnerable among us.

The decisions made in the coming weeks and months will impact our community for years to come — and all our voices matter in this process.

Anita Aguirre is CEO, Santa Cruz Community Health Centers; Donna Young, CEO, Salud Para La Gente; Laura Marcus, CEO, Dientes Community Dental Care; and Stephen Gray, CEO, Watsonville Community Hospital.