Folks throughout California are feeling the financial pinch, from the grocery aisle to the pharmacy counter. In instances like these, applications like Medicaid are extra essential than ever to maintain people and households above water. Sadly, policymakers are considering drastic cuts to Medicaid that might put the well being and financial safety of our neighborhood in danger. Medicaid is a well-liked program as a result of it helps individuals and improves on a regular basis life in our neighborhood.
California’s Medicaid program — which is known as Medi-Cal — serves about 40 % of the state’s inhabitants and helps individuals of all walks of life. That’s over 15 million Californians. In Santa Barbara County, the well being program is run by CenCal Health. One in each three residents is enrolled.
Because the CEO of CenCal Well being, our county’s not-for-profit well being plan, I see firsthand how Medicaid positively impacts greater than 241,000 individuals on the Central Coast. This system supplies for a few of our most susceptible in instances of nice want and does so in a compassionate method. For instance, Frances Spencer, a Santa Barbara County resident, wanted mind surgical procedure at UCLA. She described how Medicaid by means of CenCal Well being made her surgical procedure doable: “Subsequently, CenCal saved my life, and I’ll at all times be deeply grateful.”
Medicaid supplies important well being protection to households with low incomes, together with many working individuals who wouldn’t have entry to employer-sponsored medical insurance.
Medicaid retains households with kids, pregnant ladies, and seniors from worrying about how they’ll pay for the medical care they want. Nearly two-thirds of adults enrolled in Medicaid are working, and plenty of of those that don’t are full-time caregivers, college students, or these with a incapacity. By offering well being protection, Medicaid helps individuals and households entry preventive care and handle their well being points, to allow them to thrive.
Slicing Medicaid may have vital destructive impacts on working households, caregivers, and the broader economic system.
With out Medicaid, households with kids would battle to afford mandatory medical care, which may result in worse well being outcomes and elevated monetary stress. This not solely impacts well-being but in addition productiveness, probably resulting in job loss or college absenteeism.
Medicaid additionally helps our communities, making certain a wholesome workforce and school-aged kids for generations to return. More than 40 percent of births and nearly half of U.S. kids are coated by Medicaid. This protection makes certain children have entry to important well being care and units them up for fulfillment. In truth, kids who’re eligible for Medicaid for many of their childhood earn more as adults and are more likely to attend and complete college.
Medicaid is a job creator, supporting important roles at native hospitals and well being facilities.
Our health-care security web understands that the impact of a powerful Medicaid program equals extra jobs, extra money within the pockets of hardworking individuals, extra alternative for the subsequent era, and an general stronger economic system. In state after state, together with California, we see proof of the financial and job safety that Medicaid protection brings.
The Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics agree. Washington’s funds challenges are actual and can’t be ignored, however the reply is to not steadiness the nation’s checkbook on the backs of households and dealing individuals. Not too long ago, I had the chance to sit down down with Dr. Ashrafian, CEO of Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics. He shared that if Medicaid isn’t protected, it will transfer the American health-care system within the incorrect route and be devastating for our local people and his sufferers.
In truth, California voters supported Medicaid in report numbers — 68 % — by means of passage of Proposition 35. The Central Coast Medical Association helps native medical doctors who serve essentially the most susceptible. Dr. Engstrom, the affiliation’s president, thinks slicing Medicaid may hinder financial development by weakening the well being system and native safety-net. It will additionally damage the monetary stability of medical doctors, too.
As a mission-driven group, CenCal Well being is deeply dedicated to making sure all people, no matter revenue, can entry the medical care they want. Our longstanding give attention to serving Medicaid and different underserved populations on the Central Coast makes us a key accomplice in selling higher well being outcomes for Santa Barbara County residents.
Be a part of us in asking policymakers to guard Medicaid funding. Our households, kids, and economic system are relying on it.
Marina Owen is CEO of CenCal Health, which ranks among the many highest high quality native well being plans in California and companions with greater than 1,800 physicians to satisfy its not-for-profit mission. A company dedicated to compassionate service, CenCal Well being’s imaginative and prescient is to be a trusted chief advancing well being fairness in order that our communities thrive and obtain optimum well being collectively.
