By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media
Members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), along with other Democratic lawmakers, are ramping up efforts to push for a $500 million state budget investment to help stabilize California’s 17 public hospital systems.
Federal budget laws, such as H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, are dramatically decreasing Medicaid funding. Because more than 14 million Californians rely on Medi-Cal, the Golden State’s version of Medicaid, these cuts represent a massive blow to the state’s safety-net hospitals.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), chair of the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation, said she and her colleagues in the Legislature are actively fighting for this direct state funding to offset devastating financial losses brought on by federal cuts and looming budget changes.
“Let me not mince words, my friends. H.R. 1 cuts that will begin this fall and continue until the new year will not just put a hole in California’s public health safety net, it will burn down the net,” said CLBC member McKinnor. “If public hospitals close, Californians will die.”
McKinnor made the remarks at a news conference alongside Assemblymembers Patrick Ahrens (D-Silicon Valley), Robert Garcia (D-Rancho Cucamonga), healthcare executives, nurses, medical doctors, and hospital employees at the State Capitol on May 19.
The coalition urges state leaders to include the $500 million investment in the final 2026-27 state budget to shield the state’s 17 public hospital systems from severe federal and state funding cuts.
California’s public hospital systems face a potential $3 billion in annual losses due to federal health care policy changes under H.R. 1. An additional $800 million decrease stems from changes made in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May budget revision.
“I was born in a public hospital and refuse to stand by while they are torn apart,” said Ahrens, a member of the Assembly Budget Committee. “Without strong public hospital systems in California, health care access collapses, and people suffer. We can prevent this crisis through an emergency response. It’s time for the state to extend a financial lifeline to public hospital systems now.”
Dozens of hospitals and vital emergency services have closed in California in recent years, driven by financial distress, federal funding cuts, and changing regulations.
The state’s 17 public health care systems span the northern and southern portions of the state, according to the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (CAPH).
The public health care systems account for only 6% of hospitals in California but serve more than 3.7 million patients annually and operate in 15 counties where more than 80% of the population lives.
Public health systems provide 35% of all hospital care to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and 40% of hospital care to the uninsured, CAPH, and the California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI). Over 14 million Californians rely on Medi-Cal, with African Americans representing over a million of those beneficiaries.
Over one million Black and African American Californians are enrolled in Medi-Cal. Statewide, Black or African American residents make up roughly 6 % of all Medi-Cal enrollees, and studies indicate that roughly a quarter of all Black Californians rely on Medi-Cal for their health coverage.
According to the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), there are approximately 7.6 million Latinos enrolled in Medi-Cal, making up roughly 50% to 52% of all Medi-Cal beneficiaries in California.
“No matter how well-run, how lean or how committed its staff, no hospital system can absorb financial losses of this magnitude without stark cuts to services that will restrict health care access for millions of patients,” said Katie Rodriguez, interim president and CEO of CAPH. “The decisions state leaders make over the next month will decide how painful and deadly this crisis becomes in communities across California.”
A few hospitals have already dodged the risk of closing before the next budget cycle took effect on July 1.
Earlier in May, the state rushed Assembly Bill (AB) 108 into law. The core purpose of AB 108 is to ensure healthcare access continuity for low-income and isolated communities.
Authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), the bill provided $25 million in emergency grants to keep public and nonprofit facilities with less than 10 days of cash on hand, financially solvent.
Lawmakers such as CLBC members Sens. Akilah Weber Pierson (D-San Diego), Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (D-Los Angeles), and Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro) agreed that while that funding helps stave off imminent bankruptcies, only a robust long-term funding package will avoid drastic reductions in regional healthcare.
Starting with its maternity ward, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH) in South Los Angeles was on the brink of shutting down if it did not receive emergency funding from the state. All three CLBC members were part of the Senate Standing Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, which voted 18-0 to pass AB 108 on May 5.
“We’ve already seen what happens when hospital access disappears,” Smallwood-Cuevas said. “MLK’s predecessor, King Drew Hospital, closed in 2007, and the current MLK hospital is again, we know facing financial pressure that continues to rise.”
According to CAPH, Gov. Newsom’s May 14 Revision budget includes up to $50 million for short-term distressed hospital support, but healthcare advocates and legislators argue it falls drastically short.
The coalition is pushing back against the governor’s proposed Medi-Cal modifications. Health care workers and administrators warn that these massive deficits will directly impact jobs, and vital community services like emergency rooms and labor and delivery units.
“Tens of thousands of public sector and public health workers are at risk of losing jobs if the state of California does not act,” McKinnor said.
