Dozens of chanting protesters laid on the sidewalk in front of the Eastmont Health Center in Oakland on Thursday, holding signs meant to resemble tombstones with epitaphs like "R.I.P. Lost My Healthcare" or "Clinic Closed."
For Valerie Bachelor, director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Oakland, it's not an exaggeration to describe healthcare funding as a matter of life and death.
"What's at stake is people's health. Whether a senior is going to continue to be with us or not. And whether our folks with disabilities are going to be able to continue to live with dignity," said Bachelor.
She explained that facilities like the Eastmont Center are directly at risk for service reductions and closure, after H.R.1 — the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" — passed last fall.
That package of laws included the most significant cuts to MediCare in the program’s history, with many insurance reductions and restrictions staggered to take effect over the next two years.
Greg Slaughter is a patient at Eastmont. He currently relies on MediCare to see his cardiologist and said that changes to his insurance have already led him to pay more for heart medication and doctor visits.
"I really, really, really need to keep my insurance going. I don’t need to lose that at all," said Slaughter.
Protestors also pointed to cuts happening at the state level. California's state budget crisis has led to additional funding reductions, and headaches, for disabled patients like Christina Roma Leffman — who helped organize Thursday's protest.
"I’m noticing it being harder to get authorizations for things. And they’re throwing you in a circle, like go here, go here, go here… oh, actually we aren’t going to pay," Leffman said.
Lindsay Imai Hong, with the domestic homeware network Hands for Hands, said Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal for the next year doesn’t do enough to shore up critical healthcare programs.
"One of the people we’re trying to communicate with right now is the governor," Hong explained. "He has a choice. We have billionaires in this state. We have corporations that aren’t paying even a dime of taxes."
Hong and others said they are calling on state lawmakers to close loopholes in California’s tax code — and encouraging the governor to embrace the California billionaire tax initiative, which would levy a one-time tax on the state’s wealthiest residents to fund healthcare.
That initiative has gained enough signatures to be added to the ballot this November.
