Local nonprofits combine forces to combat federal cuts

Before the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, roughly 18% of Santa Cruz County residents lacked health insurance. After it was signed into law, that number dropped to 6%.

But as the Trump administration continues to make cuts at the federal level to myriad social services, health care providers and nonprofit officials are worried that many people will lose their coverage and other vital services such as access to food and education.

That was the message Wednesday from Watsonville Community Hospital CEO Steve Gray, who was speaking at a press conference unveiling the Santa Cruz County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, a snapshot of several factors concerning community health.

The number of uninsured people, he said, is likely to increase as the Republican-led administration continues to make cuts.

“Not only do they continue to want to roll back as many things about the ACA as they possibly can—putting access to affordable health insurance at risk for many—but they also want to cut funding to Medicaid, and constrict Medicaid eligibility requirements,” he said. 

That means that thousands of county residents will lose their eligibility, Gray said. 

“This isn’t a theory,” he said. “We know this based on what we have seen in our state and others when Medicaid funding changed, and stricter eligibility requirements were put in place.”

The press conference followed one on Tuesday, when the leaders of 23 local nonprofits announced the Pajaro Valley Collaborative, a group created to help the community withstand the ongoing cuts at the federal level.

The impact of the cuts, Gray said at the Tuesday press conference, are “real, and their impact will be deeply felt.”

This includes more than 35,000 county residents enrolled in Medi-Cal, he said. 

The collaborative includes some of the most vital service providers in the community, said Jacob’s Heart CEO Heidi Boynton. 

“Hospitals, clinics, schools, several health and social services agencies that deliver human-centered care, and are currently subject to resource reduction all over the nation. The need in our valley is immense, and each of us is deeply engaged in meeting it, every single day. But in moments like these—when challenges we face are numerous and compounding—we must come together, we must speak up.”

Proposed cuts at the federal and state levels—including to Medi-Cal and CalFresh (California’s SNAP program)—will likely have a dire impact on county residents.

Devon Francis, a physician who oversees Watsonville’s Salud Para La Gente, said Wednesday that many of the clinic’s 27,480 patients are at risk if cuts to Medi-Cal and Medicare happen.

“Cuts to these programs mean that over 21,000 of our patients will lose access to critical health care,” she said. 

That would be a regressive move after years of years of making sure low-income people had medical coverage, Francis said. 

“We made real progress in expanding access to care, and we really cannot afford to go backwards,” she said.

In the Pajaro Valley alone, 40% of residents rely on MediCal for healthcare, and 41,000 Santa Cruz County residents depend on CalFresh for food—33% of whom are children under 17. 

Second Harvest Food Bank CEO Erica Padilla Chavez said that the numbers of people seeking food assistance has increased drastically since before the pandemic, when some 55,000 people received help.

That number increased last month to 72,000, she said. 

“And I see that number increasing month after month after month,” she said.

With food insecurity coupled with high housing costs and low wages, it is important for all the human services nonprofits to work together, Padilla Chavez said.

“There is a reason why the food bank is part of the Pajaro Valley Collaborative,” she said. “Because while I am busy making sure we have enough nourishment to ensure that nobody in our community goes hungry, I’m not going to be able to solve this issue by myself. It takes a ‘we-approach’ to that work.”

“…I am wanting to lock arms with the members of this collaborative … whose mission is in fact to work to knit some of those factors so that the community has the opportunity to live a healthy, prosperous life.”

The data for Santa Cruz County is part of a nationwide survey by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

According to the report,  more than a quarter of Santa Cruz County Adults lack social and emotional support, and more than half of children in Santa Cruz County are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Other findings

• Child poverty has been increasing in the county since 2019

• Black and Hispanic people face higher rates of premature death than their white counterparts.

• 14% of children live in poverty 

• The average household spent 32% of its income on childcare

For more, visit countyhealthrankings.org

For information on the Pajaro Valley Collaborative, visit pvcollaborative.org/