Upcoming Medi-Cal changes could leave at least 300,000 uninsured in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, according to Jarrod McNaughton, CEO of Inland Empire Health Plan. California’s new budget cuts Medi-Cal for undocumented immigrants while the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act promises more Medi-Cal changes at the federal level.

Another 172,000 Inland residents could lose their private insurance if Congress doesn’t extend Enhanced Premium Tax Credits, business executives said at a Wednesday, Aug. 6, roundtable.

Between Medi-Cal and the tax credits, the total number of people who could lose coverage amounts to about 9% of the Inland Empire’s roughly 5 million residents.

California’s version of the federal Medicaid program, Medi-Cal insures California’s poor and disabled. McNaughton’s agency oversees Medi-Cal for more than 1 million people in Riverside and San Bernardino counties — 4 in 10 are on Medi-Cal.

The situation “could have been worse,” McNaughton said. “But it is not good. It’s still bad.”

About half of the 300,000 expected to lose Medi-Cal are undocumented immigrants, McNaughton said.

“These are folks that the governor made a decision a year or so ago to actually add on to the Medi-Cal program,” he said.

In 2024, California started offering Medi-Cal to low-income undocumented immigrants.

Supporters of that move argue it’s the right thing to do and more cost effective than treating this population in the emergency room, when their health problems are more severe and expensive to deal with. But the new state budget scales back that effort amid a $12 billion shortfall.

The other half, McNaughton said, include Medi-Cal recipients who expected to leave the program due to more stringent renewal requirements. Enrollees will have to go through the renewal process every six months instead of once a year, and there’s “very much more intense paperwork for the eligibility program,” McNaughton said.

The estimates cited by McNaughton don’t include Medi-Cal enrollees in other Inland health plans, including Kaiser Permanente and Molina Healthcare.

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, who voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, defended the Medi-Cal changes.

“I made it clear throughout this process that I wouldn’t, and neither would my colleagues, support cuts to Medicaid for seniors, children, mothers (or the) disabled,” he said.

“I think over time (the changes) will strengthen the program by eliminating the waste, the fraud and abuse of the program.”

He added: “We’re not cutting anything. We’re slowing the rate of increase.”

Calvert also defended Medi-Cal’s new work requirements.

“The people that are going to be removed are people who don’t want to work at least 20 hours a week … if they’re not disabled and they are capable of working or even volunteering or (getting an) education,” he said.

“These are able-bodied adults without children under 65. I think most people would support” making them work to get Medicaid.

Others take issue with the idea that Medicaid is full of freeloaders.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, almost two-thirds of U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 covered by Medicaid in 2023 were working and almost 3 in 10 were caregivers, sick or disabled or going to school — all exemptions under the new law.

“Based on the data, only a small share of Medicaid adults were not meeting work requirements” or didn’t qualify for exemptions, the foundation reported.

“However, many more Medicaid enrollees who would remain eligible would be at risk of losing coverage because of the administrative burden and red tape related to reporting requirements.”

McNaughton said he “remain(s) most concerned” about how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will affect provider taxes funding hospitals.

“That whole healthcare system on the provider side of the house, which is hospitals, emergency rooms, skilled-nursing facilities, ambulance companies — all of them that really relied on those special provider taxes are just being phased way down,” he said.

Less revenue from provider taxes, combined with cuts to Medi-Cal and state-directed hospital payments,  is “in some ways a triple whammy of problems,” McNaughton said.

“We’re all going to have to kind of work through and figure out, ‘OK, how are we going to keep funding the whole system?’”

Enhanced Premium Tax Credits stem from COVID-19 relief legislation passed by Congress in 2021. The Inflation Reduction Act, which became law a year later, extended the credits through 2025.

The credits are meant to make private health insurance via the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, more affordable for a wider range of families.

If they expire, more Americans won’t be able to afford insurance, according to panelists in the Aug. 6 roundtable hosted by the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce, the Moreno Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Black Chamber of Commerce Inland Empire.

“My clients, small business owners in the Inland Empire, relied on the tax credits to keep their health insurance during a slow year,” Shannon Carlson-Singer, lead partner of the Riverside business consulting firm SingerLewak Accountants & Consultants, said in a news release.

“In 2021, one of them suffered a serious accident requiring multiple surgeries. Without that coverage, they would have faced bankruptcy, and he might not be here today. These tax credits don’t just save money, they save lives.”

More uninsured hurts health care providers as well, Dolores Green, CEO of the Riverside County Medical Association, said in the release.

“Riverside County already has less than half the physicians we need to care for our population today. If coverage drops, no-show rates will climb, revenue will shrink, and practices will be forced to reduce staff,” Green said.

“The medical community provides about 174,000 jobs in Riverside County. It’s a huge impact. And as we see reduction there, it’s going to be felt across the economy.”

Eighty percent of Riverside Community Hospital patients “are covered by government payers,” hospital CEO Peter Hemstead said in the release about the roundtable.

“If other hospitals close service lines, more high-acuity patients will come to us with fewer options for care. We’re already overburdened. Without these tax credits, it will only get worse.”

Calvert said the credits point out a flaw in Obamacare.

Since the Affordable Care Act became law, “healthcare costs have obviously increased and what they did is they shifted the increased cost over to the government,” Calvert said. “So it’s kind of hidden the cost because of the credits that were issued.”

He added: “We need to take a look at those credits and find some solutions that lower the cost of health care … I think we’ll have to work out some kind of compromise on that.”

“We also have to have a conversation about how we balance these subsidies and reforms and make healthcare more affordable. It’s probably the biggest driver of the deficit … We want to make sure people have healthcare. But we also want to find efficiencies within the system.”

The post How many in Inland Empire will lose health insurance in next few years? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Dr. Jasmeet Bains, a Bakersfield assemblymember, hopes to harness voter outrage at Valadao’s decision to support President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, which experts say could strip health insurance from millions of low-income Californians. Nearly 290,000 residents in his own district are at risk of losing coverage, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.

“That vote was really a betrayal,” Bains said in an interview with CalMatters. “I did not envision ever running for Congress. But this is a matter of a doctor upholding her Hippocratic Oath that she took to protect her patients.”

Valadao, who has represented the Central Valley in Congress for 10 of the last 12 years, repeatedly asserted this year that he would not support any measure that would harm recipients of Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income patients and those with disabilities. He even released a statement a week before the vote indicating he would move to block the U.S. Senate’s version of the bill if it came back to the House. 

Yet on July 2, and each time the bill came before him, Valadao cast an “aye” vote. More than two-thirds of the residents in Valadao’s Central Valley district, which includes parts of King’s, Tulare and Kern Counties, rely on Medi-Cal for their health insurance.

Bains, a moderate Democrat known for sometimes opposing her own party in the Legislature, has for months dropped strong hints that she might take on the five-term congressmember in the swing district. In May, she starred in an ad campaign funded by SEIU California that urged viewers to call Valadao and tell him to vote against the GOP megabill. And political insiders interpreted a social media post shortly after the House sent the bill to Trump as an inevitable sign that she would jump into the race. 

“My community overwhelmingly elected me to office to fight for them because they know I am not afraid to go to any length to protect them,” Bains wrote on X the day after the megabill passed. “It might be time to call in the doctor!”

She joins Randy Villegas, a Visalia school board trustee and college professor, as the only two declared challengers in the race so far. Former Assemblymember Rudy Salas, who ran and lost against Valadao in 2022 and 2024, filed paperwork to run in 2026, although he has not announced his candidacy and his campaign raised less than $60 in the most recent quarter. Clovis Democrat Eric Garcia, a disabled Marine veteran whose three previous runs ended with losses in the primary, also filed a statement of candidacy on Tuesday.

Bains said several patients at her family clinic have encouraged her to run to “do something” about the rising costs of health care and the lack of access to physicians. In the Assembly, she spearheaded an effort to bring a University of California medical campus to her district. She secured $8 million in state funding for a local task force to combat the spread of fentanyl, a cause she has championed as a doctor specializing in addiction treatment. 

All eyes are on Valadao’s seat

Valadao has only lost his seat once, as part of the 2018 “blue wave” where Democrats rode a wave of voter discontent with the first Trump administration to reclaim control of the House, highlighting the GOP’s botched effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. 

After the vote, he defended his support for the megabill as “not an easy decision” and said he still had concerns about how certain aspects would be implemented. 

“Ultimately, I voted for this bill because it does preserve the Medicaid program for its intended recipients – children, pregnant women, the disabled, and elderly,” Valadao wrote. “No piece of legislation is perfect.” 

Christian Martinez, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, wrote in a statement that Bains was a “radical Democrat” and that Californians “deserve better.”

Since first winning her Assembly seat in 2022, Bains has earned a reputation as a moderate who frequently breaks ranks with her party. She was the lone Democrat to vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to penalize oil companies that exceed a certain profit margin set by state regulators. As punishment, former Speaker Anthony Rendon temporarily stripped Bains of her post on the Business and Professions Committee, a desirable committee. 

“My constituents have seen me take on my party when it comes to having their back,” Bains said, emphasizing that she often pushes back on issues of affordability. “I could not believe that there was someone that was representing this district that could not do the same.”

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Bains grew up in Delano and returned to the Central Valley after graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology. As the Great Recession hit and friends and neighbors lost their jobs and health care, Bains quit her job at her father’s Chevrolet dealership in Taft to pursue medical school in Antigua. 

She returned to Kern County for her residency and still sees patients on the weekends. In April she showed up to a Business and Professions Committee hearing dressed in scrubs after working a late night at the clinic.  

Before she has the chance to take on Valadao though, both will need to prevail in the June primary. 

‘I hoped we would have just one candidate’

Villegas leans further left than Bains and has aligned himself with the Working Families Party. While he has resisted the label of “progressive” in favor of “economic populist,” some strategists fear he might be too liberal for the Central Valley. Since launching his campaign in mid-April, Villegas has so far raised more than $230,000.

Local Democratic leaders have said Bains will likely be the front runner to challenge Valadao, given her name recognition as an assemblymember and doctor in an election cycle that will likely be dominated by health care. 

But the local Democratic Party chairs in Kern, Kings and Tulare caution that Bains is in no way a shoo-in, especially since she has positioned herself as a political outsider who bucks party leadership. 

Cathleen Jorgensen, who chairs the Kings County Democrats, said she has not been contacted by Bains or her team, a “troubling” sign since Villegas has made himself widely available. Jorgensen said she wished the party could present a united front behind a single candidate from now through next November, rather than pit multiple contenders against each other in a primary. 

“I’m concerned that it might become negative,” said Jorgensen, who has been impressed with Villegas. “I really had hoped that maybe we would have just one candidate.”

Christian Romo, chair of the Kern County Democrats, warned that while health care might be the current hot political topic, much could change between now and June 2. Running as a single-issue candidate, as Bains plans to do, is a risky bet and will require that voters remember Valadao’s vote for the megabill. That could be challenging, especially since the most severe changes to Medi-Cal won’t happen until after November 2026. 

“If we don’t keep that momentum, if we don’t keep reminding people that you’re going to lose health insurance, you’re going to lose your food assistance, you’re going to lose your veterans’ benefits and services that we desperately depend on,” Romo said, “then I don’t see us winning.”

The post One of California’s most vulnerable Republicans just got a new challenger appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The $321 billion spending plan is expected to go before the Legislature for approval later this week, ahead of the July 1 start of the fiscal year. With health care costs rising faster than expected, the state economy battered by new tariffs and further federal funding cuts looming, officials confronted a $12 billion shortfall that has forced difficult conversations about California’s spending.

Officials did not formally announce the deal as they continue to haggle over the details of a provision that could streamline construction of housing projects near public transit and denser development in cities. Newsom demanded the language, which has encountered resistance from the state Senate.

“We appreciate the strong partnership with the Legislature in reaching this budget agreement,” spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement. “The Governor’s signature is contingent on finalizing legislation to cut red tape and unleash housing and infrastructure development across the state — to build more, faster.”

Though the Legislature already passed its own version of the budget earlier this month to meet a constitutional deadline, it relied more on borrowing and less on program cuts than Newsom, who sought to reverse course on recent major expansions of subsidized health care in order to stabilize California’s long-term finances.  

The budget agreement foregoes or delays many of his proposals. Legislative leaders argued against prematurely kicking people out of a vital safety net as they search for other solutions to address a persistent revenue gap that is projected to reach more than $20 billion annually in the coming years.

With officials ultimately agreeing to fewer spending reductions — reflecting a hope by many legislators that California’s economy will eventually rally — the state will pull about $7 billion out of its rainy-day fund and $6.5 billion from other cash reserves to balance the budget next year.

Nevertheless, the plan freezes enrollment by adults without legal status in Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for the poor, starting in January. After California finished gradually opening up the program to that population last year, more new patients enrolled than expected, contributing to about $6 billion in cost overruns that required an emergency appropriation to Medi-Cal this spring.

The budget deal also eliminates dental coverage for those who remain enrolled, starting in July 2026, and creates a $30 monthly premium for undocumented Medi-Cal patients between the ages of 19 and 59 that will take effect in July 2027.

But it rejects the governor’s proposed cuts to their long-term care benefits, as well to overtime pay for home health aides and funding for reproductive health providers, and does not reinstate a strict asset test that could have pushed thousands of newly eligible older and disabled Californians off of Medi-Cal again.

Public transit agencies and the University of California and California State University also avoid funding cuts under this spending plan, though some of the money for the university systems is deferred and they will be required to take out zero-interest loans from the state’s general fund in the meantime. The deal includes $45 million to help the struggling Sonoma State University, in Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire’s district, to turn around its financial woes. 

Housing, homelessness retain funding

The Legislature successfully pushed to keep $620 million in grants and loans for affordable housing construction and $500 million to support local homelessness services, and to add $100 million in one-time funding for counties to begin implementing Proposition 36. Local government and law enforcement agencies have argued they need far more help to enforce the measure, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last fall to increase penalties and mandate treatment for certain drug crimes. Newsom remains opposed to that approach, which he contends would return California to an era of mass incarceration.

The budget deal maintains his proposal to close a fifth state prison by next October, which could save an estimated $150 million annually, and more than doubles the size of California’s film and television tax credit to $750 million, another gubernatorial priority as production flees the state.

The plan also relies on other internal fund shifts, including directing $1 billion raised from greenhouse gas polluters through cap-and-trade auctions to pay for firefighting and vegetation management projects. Some lawmakers had objected to using money intended to address climate change this way.

The fate of that cap-and-trade system, which Newsom had proposed to reauthorize through the budget, and his controversial push to fast-track the Delta tunnel are among several significant policy questions left unresolved in the agreement. They could still be addressed in follow-up budget bills in the coming weeks or through the regular legislative process by the end of the summer.

The governor also has yet to agree to a legislative proposal to lend up to $1.75 billion to local governments in Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area transit agencies dealing with their own budget crunches.

And all of this could be revisited again later this year or early next year as California warily eyes a major federal tax bill, still being negotiated in Congress, that could result in deep cuts to health care and food aid funding. Liberal state legislators and advocacy groups are turning up the pressure to raise state taxes to offset those losses, something Newsom has previously vehemently opposed.

The post Newsom agrees to ease budget cuts as California seeks more time to fix growing deficit appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

These aren’t just numbers — they’re people. Kristen, a young woman in my district, lives with a genetic disorder that causes developmental, learning, and cardiovascular issues. Every four months, she travels from the Inland Empire to San Diego for vital testing, care made possible by Medi-Cal. She works hard, dreams of owning a bakery, and fights to stay healthy. This bill threatens her care and her dream.

Trump and Republicans call it “One Big Beautiful Bill,” but let’s be clear: it’s one big betrayal. The bill cuts healthcare coverage, slashes food assistance, and raises costs, choosing instead to fund extravagant trips for the super-rich on private jets and yachts.

This isn’t just a budget bill, it’s a statement of Republican values that puts billionaires over our families, a calculated effort to take from the many and give to the few. Nearly 16 million Americans will lose healthcare. Three million will lose food assistance. In the Inland Empire, cuts mean longer emergency room wait times, getting turned away from a shortage of hospital beds, and fewer doctors and nurses.

Republicans voted to slash over $1.2 trillion from healthcare— $700 billion from Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal to Californians) and $500 billion from Medicare — breaking promises to protect seniors, children, and people with disabilities. Our state has 15 million on Medi-Cal, and more than half are children. Medi-Cal also covers 2.7 million here in the Inland Empire and 1 in 5 working Californians. These cuts don’t just hurt the most vulnerable — they put hard-working Californians’ health in jeopardy.

For those relying on Covered California, Republicans voted to raise premiums by ending an Affordable Care Act tax credit. A family of four making $126,000 could see costs nearly double from $10,710 to $19,643.

Republicans didn’t stop there; they’re cutting funding that helps families put food on the table. While families are struggling, Republicans are slashing $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that helps low-income families buy groceries. Nearly 90 percent of SNAP participants are in households with either a child, a senior, or a person with a disability. In my district, over 112,000 people rely on these benefits. The average benefit is just $6 a day; no Member of Congress, regardless of party, should support taking that away.

Republicans claim they are helping the economy, but you can’t have a healthy economy without healthy people. These cuts are all to improve the quality of life for billionaires. People earning $4 million a year get $400,000 richer, while families earning less than $50,000 will pay more for healthcare and basic needs.

In the wealthiest country in the world, no one should go hungry or lose healthcare so the rich can get more handouts.

This is not what California stands for. In the Inland Empire, we take care of each other. Families, healthcare workers, business owners, unions, food banks, disability advocates, and faith leaders are standing up. I urge you to keep pushing my Republican colleagues. There are so many stories like Kristen’s — so many families who will suffer.

To my nine California Republican colleagues: Why didn’t you stand up for your own constituents? Just one vote was needed.

When this bill returns from the Senate to the House for a final vote, you’ll have one more chance to do right by the families you represent. I hope you’ll put people over politics. If you don’t, the constituents you’ve abandoned will remember.

Norma J. Torres represents California’s 35th congressional district.

The post Norma Torres: GOP budget betrays the Inland Empire appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Those are among the hundreds of proposals California lawmakers swiftly rejected Friday under the banner of cost savings, as they cited the state’s $12 billion budget deficit — a worsening figure due to the threat of unprecedented federal funding cuts and California’s ballooning spending on health care for low-income residents. 

“We are in (a) very difficult budget environment this year, so consequently many good bills are going to fall by the wayside today,” said Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat, before beginning that chamber’s hearing. 

“We are not in a year where we can be expanding programs, developing new offices, new agencies, new departments, and expanding our footprints.”

The Friday procedure is known as the “suspense file” — the state Legislature’s most secretive and fast-paced biannual hearing, where the chairs of the Assembly and Senate Appropriations committees quickly shoot down pricey proposals with little explanation, often acting more aggressively during years of budget woes. 

The suspense files are where the appropriations committees send bills that would cost the state at least $50,000 in the Senate and $150,000 in the Assembly. The process was originally a way for lawmakers to consider policy proposals that cost the state money together by balancing them against each other. 

But the well-accepted open secret in Sacramento is that it’s also an opportunity for lawmakers to quietly kill controversial bills, appease powerful special interests or just winnow down the number of bills they’ll have to debate on the floor. Lawmakers decide ahead of time, in secret, whether to pass the bills to the full Senate or Assembly, or to withhold them. The public hearings are a rapid-fire announcement of the decisions.

On Friday, the Senate Appropriations Committee axed 29% of the 432 bills on its list, although it kept a handful of those alive to work on next year. That’s more aggressive trimming than the committee did last May. 

“The state is facing a significant budget deficit and with that in mind, the committee had to make difficult choices on a number of bills to reduce costs,” said Senate Appropriations Chairperson Anna Caballero, a Merced Democrat, before the hearing. She opened the hearing with a defense of the arcane proceedings, explaining that the results would be posted online, but rushed out to catch a flight after the meeting without discussing her approach with reporters. 

The Assembly Appropriations Committee killed 35% of the 666 measures on its suspense file, similar to last year. Lawmakers had been warned to keep the cost of their proposals down, Wicks said. 

“We stressed heavily to members as they were putting together their legislative package this year to be very mindful of cost,” she told reporters.

The state’s fiscal future is anything but certain: As federal threats loom, Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month rolled out a $322 billion spending plan that included significant cuts to Medi-Cal, the state’s health care system for low-income Californians, and a 3% cut to public universities. 

Health care expansions on the chopping block

On Friday, some Assembly measures that would have expanded health care services for Californians met their fate. That includes Wicks’ own proposal seeking federal approval to qualify some housing services as Medi-Cal benefits, a $40 million endeavor that Newsom previously vetoed. The committee also killed a proposal to allow more Medi-Cal enrollees to receive home-based care and another that would have allowed higher-earning immigrants in the country illegally to purchase insurance plans on Covered California, the state-run health care marketplace.

In the Senate, lawmakers shelved a proposal by Sen. Catherine Blakespear to impose campaign contribution limits on candidates for judicial office and school board races, which the influential California Teachers Association opposed. They axed Sen. Henry Stern’s proposal to expand the state’s contentious new mental health program CARE Courts to include defendants with bipolar disorder I, and Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil’s bill to address mountain lion interactions that has pitted rural communities against animal rights and wildlife conservation advocates. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee also killed two Republican tough-on-crime proposals, showing the limits of Democrats’ recent shift slightly rightward on crime. Until Friday, it had been surprisingly smooth sailing this year for Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones’ bill to block sex offenders from being released from prison through the state’s elderly parole program, and Sen. Kelly Seyarto’s bill to increase penalties for selling or giving fentanyl to minors.

The law enforcement-backed bills were opposed by criminal justice reform advocates, who still hold sway with the majority party and often argue it would be too costly for the state to imprison more people. 

In a statement, Jones, a San Diego Republican, called the suspense file process “anti-democratic” and accused Democrats of “silencing the voices of victims and the public.”

Some measures are now postponed until next year. That includes two Assembly measures seeking tighter regulations on ticket sales for sports and musical events, amid fierce opposition from ticketing platforms such as Stubhub and from local chambers of commerce. The measures would restrict when those platforms can resell tickets, strengthen the disclosure of ticket information and require venues to accept proof of purchase as tickets. 

Assm. Isaac Bryan, a Culver City Democrat who authored one of the measures, said Wicks never articulated her concerns with his proposal, even though Wicks told reporters Friday her staff had been in touch with Bryan’s office. “There was never an attempt to discuss the bill,” which led him to believe her concerns had been alleviated, Bryan said in a statement. 

Lawmakers also pushed off some issues to be debated further during budget negotiations between the Legislature and Newsom. That process will accelerate in the coming weeks before a mid-June deadline to pass a balanced budget. 

Newsom’s film tax credit pushed to budget talk

They stripped out language in both Assembly and Senate bills to more than double the state’s film tax credit to $750 million. Newsom has pushed hard for the tax credit expansion to help the ailing Los Angeles industry and keep production in state, and he’s included the money in his budget proposals which lawmakers will debate separately. 

Assemblymember Rick Zbur, a Los Angeles Democrat who authored the Assembly version of the measure, said the committee move was merely a technical one to separate budget allocations from policy changes. 

“The increase in the size of the program will happen in the budget,” Zbur said. “I’m not that nervous about it.”

But to others, the move indicated that some lawmakers remain skeptical of spending so much on the program. Sen. Ben Allen, an El Segundo Democrat who sponsored the Senate bill to boost the tax credits, said he was “certainly disappointed.”

“It’s something we are going to push back against as budget negotiations begin to heat up,” he said in a statement.

An ambitious and highly technical proposal by Sen. Scott Wiener reining in the landmark California Environmental Quality Act to make it harder for opponents of development to sue to block housing projects also will be debated in the budget process.

In the Senate Appropriations Committee, lawmakers passed the bill but Caballero said they would continue negotiating it to help the state meet its housing needs “without compromising environmental protections.”

The post California lawmakers reject hundreds of bills in rapid-fire hearings appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The GOP proposal unveiled Sunday is touching off the biggest political fight over health care since Republicans tried but failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act during Trump’s first term in 2017.

The latest legislation calls for at least $880 billion in cuts — largely to Medicaid — to help cover the cost of trillions of dollars in tax breaks that are part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The tax breaks are set to expire at the end of 2025, but if extended they would cost an estimated $4.5 trillion over a 10-year period.

In California, Medicaid is administered through the state’s Medi-Cal program. Medi-Cal pays for a variety of medical services for children and adults in California who have limited income and resources. California seniors on Medicare who cannot afford to pay their premiums are also among Medi-Cal recipients, as are many people with disabilities.

As of November 2024, California had enrolled 14,815,950 people in Medi-Cal, according to the state’s Department of Health Care Services.

Over 8 million people in California could lose their health coverage under the GOP proposal, according to the California Budget and Policy Center, a progressive think tank that advocates for programs that benefit low-income individuals, people of color, and vulnerable communities.

Nationwide, 78,532,341 people were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to December 2024 data from the federal government. Like Medicaid, the CHIP program provides free or low-cost health insurance to children whose families fall in certain income brackets.

Republicans insist new work and eligibility requirements are needed to root out “waste, fraud and abuse” in the Medicaid program, but Democrats warn millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a preliminary estimate that 8.6 million people would lose their health care coverage over a decade under the GOP proposal.

Republicans are planning around-the-clock hearings this week on various sections to meet House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline to pass the bill.

Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) has been vocal in his opposition to potential Medicaid cuts, fearing they will harm vulnerable populations in the state. He argues that Republicans are prioritizing tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of essential health services.

He is among the chorus of Democrats who view the potential cuts as “shameful.”

“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel. “Hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”

More than a dozen House Republicans have told Johnson and GOP leaders they will not support cuts to the health care safety net programs that residents back home depend on.

But they are not the GOP majority. Loyalists to President Donald Trump appear to be sticking to their guns on Medicaid cuts.

“Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the GOP chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending.

According to data from KFF Health News, Medicaid and CHIP recipients nationwide are a mix of people:

• 82 percent are children living below the poverty level;
• 62 percent are people living in nursing homes;
• 41 percent are pregnant women giving birth;
• 39 percent are children;
• 31 percent are non-elderly adults with disabilities;
• 19 percent are Medicare recipients.

Medicaid is a valued safety net program, according to a recent KFF poll that showed 77 percent of Americans and 84 percent of Medicaid recipients view it favorably. Nearly half (46 percent) and two-thirds of Medicaid enrollees believe the federal government isn’t spending enough on the program, according to the poll.

The road ahead is uncertain. Under the GOP proposal, to be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents.

Most adults covered by the state’s Medi-Cal program — about 3 in 5 — already work full-time or part-time, and those who don’t are mainly caring for family, ill or disabled, or going to school, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.

Under the GOP proposal, people would also have to verify their eligibility to be in the program twice a year, rather than just once.

This is likely to lead to more churn in the program and present hurdles for people to stay covered, especially if they have to drive far to a local benefits office to verify their income in person. But Republicans say it’ll ensure that the program is administered to those who qualify for it.

Many states have expanded their Medicaid rosters thanks to federal incentives, but the legislation would cut a 5 percent boost that was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal funding to the states for immigrants who have not shown proof of citizenship would be prohibited.

In recent years, Medi-Cal coverage has expanded to cover all California residents who meet income requirements. The most recent expansion was on January 1, 2024, when Medi-Cal opened to California residents regardless of immigration status.

Up to 1 million undocumented residents statewide may be receiving Medi-Cal, according to estimates from the UC Berkeley Labor Center. If accurate, the figure represents about 7% of all Medi-Cal recipients.

Under the GOP proposal, there would also be a freeze on the so-called provider tax that some states use to help pay for large portions of their Medicaid programs. The extra tax often leads to higher payments from the federal government, which critics say is a loophole that creates abuse in the system.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

The post Cuts, Changes To Medicaid Proposed In New Bill: What To Know In CA appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.