Viewpoint

Viewpoint: Medi-Cal budget cuts would endanger lives

By Candace L. Markwith

T hroughout California, community hospitals provide vital health care and emergency services to millions of people around the clock. Babies are born there, and countless lives are saved every single day. But our hospitals—and the lives of every man, woman and child —are at stake and increasingly at risk.

Recent budget cuts to the state’s Medi-Cal program will put patients and our hospitals at even greater risk. In February of this year, the governor signed into law a 10 percent budget cut to the Medi- Cal program, which serves our state’s most vulnerable patients—the uninsured, underinsured and working poor, disabled and seniors. These cuts, which will take effect July 1, will likely result in more hospital closures or reductions in critical emergency and trauma-care services on which all Californians depend. When health care services are lost, it affects the entire community.

The new Medi-Cal cuts will further erode an already underfunded program. Medi- Cal already ranks dead last in the nation in payments to health care providers. In fact, California’s community hospitals lost a total of $2.8 billion in 2007 from inadequate

payments for care provided to Medi- Cal patients.

In this latest round of cuts, hospitals are facing an additional loss of $500 million. Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center and hospitals throughout San Luis Obispo County will not be immune from these cuts. Adding insult to injury, the budget also calls for payment delays to doctors and hospitals in June and August.

A growing number of physicians are already canceling their Medi-Cal contracts because of the woefully poor reimbursement rates. That means there are fewer physicians treating Medi-Cal patients and less access to care for patients. It’s hard to blame physicians because current payments are so low. But patients who are unable to receive care from their doctors often turn to hospital emergency rooms—the most expensive setting for providing health care.

With a $16 billion budget deficit, California is undoubtedly in a fiscal crisis. But so is California’s health care system. During the past decade, more than 70 California hospitals and emergency rooms have closed. Nearly 50 percent of hospitals are operating in the red, and several are either near or already in bankruptcy proceedings. The Medi-Cal budget cuts are bound to cause more hospitals to curtail essential services and more emergency rooms and hospitals to close.

At Sierra Vista, we recognize that the enormity of the state’s fiscal problems will require budget cuts to all state programs, including those affecting hospitals. But it is simply not feasible to cut our way out of a $16 billion deficit. A more balanced approach is needed to solve this fiscal emergency.

The state’s current health care crisis could get much worse. Critical health care services must not be allowed to further erode or be lost altogether. Lives could be at risk if the cuts to Medi-Cal are not reversed.