Healthcare experts have warned the cuts could be especially devastating in the San Joaquin Valley, where about half the population was covered by Medi-Cal in 2025. “If we’re talking about the Central Valley and Fresno, those areas proudly feed the rest of the U.S.,” said Dr. Seciah Aquino, executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California. “We’re talking about farmworker communities, communities who need and deserve access to Medi-Cal.”
Studies say California already spends about $3.5 billion annually on preventable emergency medical treatment. Aquino, of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, said the costs of higher emergency room attendance are often “punted to a different part of the system,” oftentimes county governments. She said California is “shooting itself in the foot” by cutting access to health insurance for immigrants — a large percentage of them from the Latino and indigenous communities who work and pay taxes despite being undocumented. A study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed undocumented people paid $8.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2022. Said Aquino: “We provide industry folks with so many tax breaks, yet we are willing to let the most vulnerable bear the brunt of that economic burden.”
