{"id":42394,"date":"2025-07-05T12:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T19:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42394"},"modified":"2025-07-05T12:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T19:46:15","slug":"clinics-hospitals-and-thousands-of-s-f-residents-could-be-hit-by-trumps-medicaid-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/05\/clinics-hospitals-and-thousands-of-s-f-residents-could-be-hit-by-trumps-medicaid-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinics, hospitals and thousands of S.F. residents could be hit by Trump\u2019s Medicaid cuts\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" by\u00a0OSCAR PALMA<\/a><\/strong> July 4, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A bicyclist passes Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Health care experts and workers say the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>President Donald Trump\u2019s signature legislative achievement that passed Congress on Thursday morning and slashes billions in spending for Medicaid, will put between three<\/a> to eight<\/a> million Californians at risk of losing healthcare. The state could see up to $22.3 billion<\/a> in federal funding vanish as a result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will hit San Francisco hard: As many as 238,000 residents \u2014 29 percent of the city\u2019s population<\/a> \u2014 are enrolled in Medi-Cal, California\u2019s version of the program, according to the San Francisco Health Plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of those residents, 180,000, are enrolled through the San Francisco Health Plan, one the city\u2019s options for Medi-Cal enrollment. A full 10 percent of those, 17,896 people, will be forced off Medi-Cal due to Trump\u2019s bill and Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s recent move<\/a> to freeze new enrollments of undocumented adults in healthcare, according to an estimate from the San Francisco Health Plan provided<\/a> to Mission Local. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s law creates new requirements<\/a>: Recipients between 19 and 64 must work a minimum of 80 hours a month to qualify for Medicaid, and must undergo an enrollment assessment twice a year instead of once a year. Caregivers of those 14 and younger, people with disabilities, and pregnant women are exempt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unclear how many of the 58,000 San Franciscans enrolled in Medi-Cal outside the San Francisco Health Plan plans will fail to qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another target: San Francisco\u2019s immigrants. As of June, the San Francisco Health Plan had 44,632 members with unsatisfactory immigration status. Under Trump\u2019s new law, California will be penalized $4.4 billion<\/a> in federal funds for using state dollars to provide non-emergency care for undocumented immigrants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we begin to understand the scope and implications of these federal cuts, we are committed to working with our providers, advocates, and leaders on strategies that will protect health care access for our 180,000 members,\u201d read a statement from the San Francisco Health Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Healthcare experts expected the cuts to be felt throughout the medical system,  and warned that hospitals and clinics dependent on Medi-Cal payments would be especially hard hit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis bill proposes the biggest cuts to Medicaid in the 60 year history of this program,\u201d said Laurel Lucia, a deputy executive director at the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center. \u201cNot only will Medi-Cal enrollees in San Francisco have to worry about their coverage, but hospitals, clinics and other health care providers could see cuts as a result of this bill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shannon Udovic-Constant, a pediatrician based in San Francisco and the president of the California Medical Association<\/a>, said the cuts to Medicaid will have a ripple effect across the system. As people lose insurance, she said, they use emergency rooms more, making waiting times longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomething as simple as preventative care for high blood pressure or diabetes or even asthma will exacerbate because people will have to wait and only get care in the emergency room,\u201d said Jennifer Esteen, a registered nurse and a vice president of SEIU 1021, which represents workers at San Francisco General. \u201cPreventable illnesses will become extreme emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if clinics and hospitals are \u201closing that revenue\u201d from Medi-Cal patients, \u201cthey\u2019re going to be forced to make tough choices, like potentially reducing services, potentially laying off staff, and in some cases, potentially closing their doors altogether,\u201d said Udovic-Constant. \u201cThese providers operate on already really thin margins and rely on Medicaid dollars to continue offering services.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Franciscans rely on a network of nearly three dozen neighborhood clinics that provide health care access to low-income communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denisse Porter, the associate chief medical officer at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center<\/a>, one of those clinics, said that in 2024 about 71 percent of the clinic\u2019s funding was reimbursement from Medi-Cal.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are very concerned about what is going on and what the challenges that these changes in Medicaid are going to have on our communities,\u201dshe said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city-owned hospitals, Zuckerberg San Francisco General and Laguna Honda, will be impacted: In 2023, 52 percent<\/a> of discharges at San Francisco General were paid by Medi-Cal, representing 13.1 percent of total revenue, according to sums provided by the hospital to the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Laguna Honda, in 2023, 79 percent<\/a> of discharges were paid by Medi-Cal and 40 percent of its total revenue came from the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The San Francisco Department of Public Health, which oversees both hospitals, wrote on June 20 that the \u201cdepartment is currently assessing potential impacts, but remains committed to protecting and promoting the health of all San Franciscans.\u201d The department wrote to Mission Local.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esteen from SEIU 1021 said employee layoffs are also a concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city\u2019s healthcare industry amounted to 12 percent<\/a> of its total workforce in 2023. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to predict today where those cuts will take place, but we can anticipate them without question,\u201d said Esteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important that right now we use our platforms to reassure patients and to reassure the community that we\u2019re here for your physical and mental health,\u201d said Porter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OSCAR PALMA<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

oscar.palma@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar is a reporter with interest in environmental and community journalism, and how these may intersect. Some of his personal interests are bicycles, film, and both Latin American literature and punk. Oscar’s work has previously appeared in KQED, The Frisc, El Tecolote, and Golden Gate Xpress.More by Oscar Palma<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0OSCAR PALMA July 4, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) Health care experts and workers say the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, President Donald Trump\u2019s signature legislative achievement that passed Congress on Thursday morning and slashes billions in spending for Medicaid, will put between three to eight million Californians at risk of losing healthcare. The… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42395,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42394\/revisions\/42395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}