House Energy & Commerce Committee Member Rep. Obernolte (R-Hesperia) Only CA Rep to Vote Yes – Threatening for 366,000 of His Own Constituents

Sacramento, CA – The Fight for Our Health coalition of seniors, people with disabilities, health care workers, caregivers, veterans, and children’s and health care advocates today slammed the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s vote to advance nearly $800 billion in health care cuts in order to deliver new tax cuts to Trump’s billionaire and wealthy CEO friends. They pointed to analyses from health care experts showing the cuts would result in millions of Californians losing health care, thousands dying, and widespread healthcare impacts for all Californians who would experience higher costs, longer ER wait times, and worse health care outcomes. 

“As Californians, our health care is interconnected. It’s preposterous to say you can terminate care for millions of people enrolled in Medi-Cal without a severe impact on care for all Californians,” said Amanda McAllister-Wallner, Health Access Executive Director. “Even as they took votes to move this devastating plan forward, Republican members from California claimed they would protect Medicaid in the end. With the stakes now spelled out in black and white, there are no more excuses – Reps. Valadao, Kim, Calvert, LaMalfa and all House members whose constituents count on Medi-Cal must commit NOW to voting NO on this deadly agenda.”  

“This plan, written by Republicans in Congress, including our own Rep. Obernolte, specifically targets California for the worst cuts under this plan because our state has led the nation in expanding access to care that improves health equity and saves long-term costs. The fact that this plan singles out their own constituents for worse health outcomes and even death is reason enough for all California House members to reject this plan outright,” said Kiran Savage-Sangwan, Executive Director of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network. “As our own research shows, lack of access to primary and preventative care has higher long term costs for patients and government alike. This plan will cause preventable disease, hospitalizations, and death.” 

“It’s not right for our patients to have life-saving care ripped away just because they are between jobs, or to have children go hungry because mom and dad have to stretch the family budget to cover the cost of medicine, but that’s exactly what will happen to our patients under this cruel plan,” said Alvin Mauricio Medina, Unit Secretary at Southern California Hospital at Hollywood. “Healthcare workers will continue fighting to defeat these senseless and destructive cuts”

While the Republican plan hides health care cuts beneath politician-speak, the result of their plan would be cutting care for millions of Californians, putting hospitals and nursing homes at risk of closure, and hiking the price of care for everyone, regardless of insurance type. Their plan forces millions out of health care coverage by erecting new barriers and establishing more red tape in the way of care for vulnerable Californians and workers in low-wage jobs:

• New reporting and paperwork burdens on patients – misleadingly called “community engagement requirements” – are designed to reduce the number of Medicaid enrollees by punishing people who lose their jobs, or who work in gig jobs or have unpredictable schedules, hoping they will fall through bureaucratic cracks. A whopping 92% of adults under age 65 who get their health care through Medicaid and are not enrolled in disability programs are already working, or not working due to caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or school attendance. An estimated 3,481 Californians would die each year from preventable causes after their health coverage is terminated due to work reporting requirements. Tens of thousands of eligible children would lose their health coverage due to onerous paperwork and reporting requirements imposed on their parents. Fact Sheet 

• New red tape in the form of twice-as-frequent requirements for enrollees to prove their eligibility, another tactic to terminate care by pushing people and families who need health care through new bureaucratic cracks. These new paperwork requirements are costly, dangerous, and inequitable.
  
• Penalties for states like California that use state dollars to provide health care coverage to eligible people, regardless of immigration status. Beyond the dubious legality of this provision, it will put additional strain on overburdened emergency rooms and does nothing about the real cost drivers in health care like corporate greed.
  
• Mandatory fees for people making as little as $15,651 annually to access health care. This “cost sharing” requirement means that an individual living in deep poverty could be slapped with nearly $800 in medical bills.

• Massive cuts to hospitals and health care providers by restricting the use of multiple financing mechanisms that are used in almost every state in the country to keep hospital doors open.  

The Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the proposal to the House Budget Committee as constituents in GOP districts ramp up pressure on their members of Congress to reject any cuts to Medicaid.  Yesterday, thousands of constituents converged at dozens of hospitals across California for “Save Our Hospitals” rallies, sending a powerful accountability message to GOP members. California hospitals – especially those in Republican Congressional districts – heavily rely on Medicaid funding. Many of the most hard hit facilities are in the California districts of Republican members of Congress who have voted to move this plan forward – more than $5.6 billion is at risk in their districts alone. See how much Medi-Cal funding is at risk in each of these districts here. 

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. 

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