Healthcare workers from all six Bay Area hospitals gathered at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital yesterday morning. They're urging the state to allocate $500 million towards its public hospitals.
San Francisco’s Director of Public Health, Daniel Tsai addressed the crowd, saying, “Here at San Francisco General Hospital, we're the city's only level one trauma center."
“Everybody in the city, regardless of income, is going to end up here," he continued. "God forbid, if there's a major trauma accident, and our services will be at risk because of these cuts.”
Tsai told KALW that people on Medi-Cal who don’t have insurance will suffer the most.
HR-1, also known as President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” has cut nearly $3 billion in federal funding to hospitals across California.
And Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest version of the budget does little to make up for that. But advocates say the governor can still change his mind.
Public hospitals provide care to everyone, regardless of their coverage or ability to pay. But without additional funding, California’s public hospitals will be forced to reduce services and could even close.
Advocates say that, ultimately, it could lead to an increase in preventable illnesses.
Only 8% of California’s hospitals are public. But two-thirds of burn victims in the state end up in a public hospital, and almost a third of the state's psychiatric patients.
Kristin Hardy, the Regional Vice President of SEIU 1021, said they’re often the only form of preventative care for some Black and Brown communities.
Hardy added by saying, “It’d devastate and collapse California. I mean, especially with the rise in healthcare costs, the cut to food stamps and SNAP benefits, it's going to start affecting people's health, and it already has. We've already started experiencing it in Oakland and out here with closures of certain viable clinics that serve the most vulnerable populations."
About 7% of Californians are uninsured. If the state does not step in to help, this figure could grow to 15%.
The state has until June 15th to pass a budget bill for the upcoming fiscal year.
