If it wasn’t for Medicaid, San Jose resident Hoang Truong would be spending roughly half of his income on health insurance for his family.
The new father stood in front of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center on Tuesday morning with his 11-month-old daughter Joann in his arms as local leaders warned of the disastrous impacts that proposed cuts to the health insurance program could bring.
In California, nearly 15 million residents rely on Medicaid — referred to as Medi-Cal in the state — and in Santa Clara County, one out of every four residents is enrolled in the program. Nationally, more than 70 million Americans are covered by Medicaid.
Truong’s wife and daughter received a year of health insurance at no cost thanks to the program. He said that without it, he doesn’t know how his family could afford health care.
“With Medi-Cal, I can ensure that my new baby will get the health checkups to grow up healthy,” Truong said. “I don’t have to worry about how to pay for the care. Medi-Cal is important not just for my family but for millions of other people just like myself.”
But the popular program is currently under threat, as Republicans in Congress look for ways to make $880 billion in cuts over the next decade. A recent memo from the nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office detailed that it would be impossible to come up with that amount without touching either Medicaid — a federal health insurance program for low income individuals — or Medicare, which is health insurance for people 65 and older.
Truong spoke on Tuesday as part of national Medicaid Day of Action organized by House Democrats as they fight to protect the program. U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Sam Liccardo gathered with Truong at Santa Clara County’s largest hospital, while Reps. Nancy Pelosi, Mike Thompson, Kevin Mullin, Lateefah Simon and Sen. Adam Schiff assembled elsewhere in the Bay Area.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a statement with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that “Democrats are leading the fight to oppose the largest Medicaid cut in American history.”
“Democrats stand on the side of the American people,” they said. “Republicans are doing the bidding of their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations. We are in this fight until we win this fight.”
In Santa Clara County, cuts to Medi-Cal could be devastating, according to County Executive James Williams. Roughly a third of the county’s budget comes directly or indirectly from the federal government, with about 80% for healthcare. Almost all of that money is related to Medicaid and Medicare. Santa Clara County operates the second-largest public health system in the state with 14 clinics and three — soon to be four — hospitals.
“A cut of the magnitude being discussed by Congress would affect the foundation of the basic core infrastructure that we’re able to provide as a health system,” Williams said. “Not just to the hundreds of thousands of families who directly get health insurance through Medi-Cal, but to every family in our community that otherwise takes for granted the fact that they have access to this incredible facility and the rest of the county’s hospital and clinic system.”
At the press conference in San Jose, Lofgren and Liccardo stressed the importance of putting pressure on the nine Republican members of California’s congressional delegation.
Rep. David Valadao, a Republican representing parts of the San Joaquin Valley, has the district with the highest number of Medicaid recipients in the United States, Lofgren said. He recently voted in favor of a budget resolution with cuts to Medicaid.
“If they all vote no, the bill goes down,” Lofgren said of the nine Republicans. “It’s up to us. It’s up to our friends and neighbors in the red districts to make sure that this attack on healthcare does not succeed.”
Liccardo, who replaced former Rep. Anna Eshoo in Congress earlier this year, blamed the situation on President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Republican majority who “have cut a political check that they don’t have the funds to cover.” The former mayor was referring to Republicans’ goal of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts to the tune of $4.5 trillion.
“We’re not going to be fudging, we’re not going to be fidgeting, we’re not going to be fluctuating or fumbling and we’re certainly not going to be fading,” Liccardo said. “We’re going to be fighting here in Santa Clara County and we’re going to be fighting for communities throughout the country. We’re going to be fighting for Joann and for the millions of Americans who depend on this critical lifeline.”