Jimmy Panetta speaks out against President Trump’s threat to gut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) - Congressman Jimmy Panetta and healthcare officials are speaking out against President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," saying cuts to Medicaid could leave thousands in Santa Cruz County at risk.

"It was incumbent upon me to vote no the numerous times," said Panetta.

The bill would significantly slash Medicaid funding by around a trillion dollars, according to Panetta, leaving patients and healthcare providers concerned about healthcare in Santa Cruz County.

"But most estimates are the number of 37,000 individuals in this area, probably losing their eligibility and coming off of the medicaid rolls, is fairly accurate," said Donaldo Hernandez, a healthcare worker in the county.

"Our rate of uninsured patients, meaning the amount of uncompensated care that we do, has decreased from 30% in 2012 to just 8% in 2024. This means that Medi-Cal is paying for the majority of the services that we provide," said Dr. Francis, Chief Medical Officer at Salud Para La Gente.

Panetta says the impacts could be felt beyond the loss of coverage.

"The working families that are going to lose out on these benefits. You're going to see the ripple effects into our local hospitals. Like I said, several issues in this bill could cause rural hospitals to close down," said Panetta.

Santa Cruz County officials say the timeline of impact remains unclear and depends on how the state responds.

"We have a whole team set up to look at the impacts from the bill, and we're waiting to see what the state does in terms of its analysis and response. A lot of these impacts are trickled down from the federal government to the state government to the county. So we will, of course, be looking at what happens in the fall if the state holds a special session, and then, depending on what happens, if there are impacts locally," said Nicole Coburn, Santa Cruz County Assistant Administrative Officer

Santa Cruz County may have a special session to take another look at the budget and possibly allocate funding to health care.