Rural Californians would be hurt the most by huge proposed cuts to Medicaid, known in California as Medi-Cal, according to a new report from Georgetown University.
In rural parts of the state, 49% of children get their health care through Medi-Cal, and 41% in urban areas.
Faith Colburn, health care advocacy director for The Children’s Partnership, said the cuts would be widely felt.
“5.3 million children in California are on Medi-Cal,” Colburn reported. “Fifty-three percent of California’s children and 40% of births are covered by Medi-Cal. And three-fourths are children of color. ”
Congressional Republicans have suggested ways to reduce Medicaid spending, in order to extend tax cuts enacted by President Donald Trump in 2017, which some say mainly benefited the wealthy. The cuts could take the form of block grants which put a ceiling on how much states would be reimbursed, regardless of need or eligibility. It would force the state to either make up the difference through tax revenue or cut funding to health centers, thus limiting care for low-income families.
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said the cuts would make preventive care like checkups harder to access.
“People wind up sicker and then they’re in the emergency room and children can’t get their asthma inhalers and they miss school,” Alker pointed out.
Katy Kozhimannil, professor of health and policy management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, said the cuts could cause more rural hospitals to cut maternity care services, leaving expectant mothers no local option to give birth.
“Offering obstetric care is a financial challenge for hospitals as revenues may not cover the costs of providing that care,” Kozhimannil noted. “Medicaid covers nearly half of all births nationally and plays a substantially larger role in paying for births in rural areas.”
The report found in 2022, 52% of rural hospitals no longer had maternity wards, compared to 36% of urban hospitals.
