As Nearly 3 Million Californians Face Losing Medi-Cal, Assembly Budget Leaves People with Disabilities, Seniors, and Working Families Without a Safety Net

SACRAMENTO, CA – The Fight For Our Health coalition – led by SEIU California, Health Access California, and the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network – is calling on the California State Assembly to include a Medi-Cal Fair Share Contribution in the final state budget after the Assembly’s budget proposal released today includes little additional revenue to protect Californians’ health care from the devastating federal cuts in H.R. 1, what President Trump calls the “Big, Beautiful Bill”. 

The Assembly’s proposal misses the opportunity to save lives and to meet voters’ demand for corporations who abuse Medi-Cal to pay their fair share to protect critical health care services for working families, immigrants, seniors and people with disabilities. A new UC Berkeley Labor Center study finds that approximately 3.6 million California workers rely on Medi-Cal for health coverage — at a projected cost of $36 billion in state and federal dollars — because large corporations fail to provide affordable coverage for their workers and pay so little that their employees must turn to Medi-Cal. Many of these same corporations are now pocketing billions in federal tax breaks paid for by cutting the very health care their workers depend on. A recent statewide poll found that Californians see through it — 76% support requiring large corporations to contribute to Medi-Cal by a 4-to-1 margin, with majority support in every region of the state, including 81% support in Assembly Speaker Rivas’ own district.

The statement below can be attributed to Kiran Savage-Sangwan, Executive Director, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network:

“The Assembly’s budget proposal does not reflect the values of Californians, and their relative silence on revenue while cutting care is out of step with the communities its members were elected to represent. The Senate has stepped up to include revenue proposals in their budget in order to protect health care for vulnerable Californians. Now it is time for the Assembly to do the same — and there is still time to do the right thing.

“Corporations are pocketing billions in federal tax breaks paid for by cutting the health care that millions of Californians depend on to survive — people with disabilities who rely on Medi-Cal for in-home care, seniors who depend on it for medications and treatment, and working families who have no other option. The Assembly must decide whose side they are on.

“The Assembly plan to study the need for revenue falls short; action is needed now to ensure that millions more Californians don’t lose coverage, live sicker, take on huge medical debt, or die younger while we wait for a solution.”

The stakes could not be higher. Without a revenue solution in the final budget, nearly 3 million Californians are projected to lose Medi-Cal by 2028 as a direct result of H.R. 1 cuts. For people with disabilities, that means losing access to the in-home care, medications, and treatment they depend on to live independently. For working families, it means choosing between a doctor’s visit and keeping the lights on.

The details of the Assembly budget plan can be found here. The Assembly will now enter negotiations with the Senate and the Governor’s Office to finalize a budget and the Fight For Our Health coalition is calling on Assembly leadership to come to the table ready to include a Fair Share Contribution and to stand with the millions of Californians who are counting on them to act.

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