| David Valadao represents the largest share of Medicaid recipients out of any Republican district – and yet he cast the deciding vote to cut nearly $1 trillion from the lifesaving program, threaten rural hospitals, and rip away Medi-Cal from 65,000 of his own constituents.
Now, an in-home care worker from Kern County is warning that Valadao’s reckless vote will put more than 800,000 Californians at risk of losing care under the In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS) – which relies on Medicaid funding to support seniors and families and addresses disproportionate health needs in the Valley.
“Representative Valadao knows that our community relies on these vital programs to survive, but he chose to stand with wealthy billionaires, not working families in Kern County,” she writes.
Read the column below:
Bakersfield Californian: Community Voices: Proposition 50 holds Rep. Valadao accountable for cutting a vital care program
- I love my job as an in-home caregiver in Kern County. My clients — low-income seniors and people with disabilities in our community — are dependent on me for many of their needs: cooking, cleaning, bathing, laundry, wound care, taking them to doctor appointments — you name it, I do it. It’s very tough work, but at the end of the day, I’m proud to be providing care for people who desperately need it.
- Home care workers empower our clients to live with health, dignity and freedom. More than 800,000 Californians rely on the In-Home Supportive Services program, which is funded in large part by Medicaid (or Medi-Cal).
- Bakersfield has some of the worst air quality in the entire country. Many of my clients’ health conditions are made worse by breathing in the polluted air. Kern County also has the highest-rate of diabetes-related deaths of any county in California.
- I see all of these statistics play out first-hand as I care for clients and take them to doctors’ appointments. I’m looking out for my clients’ health, but many of our elected representatives aren’t looking out for us.
- As the recent federal budget fight played out in Washington, D.C., I was angered to see my congressman, David Valadao, voted to slash Medicaid funding in order to give a huge tax handout to billionaires.
- Representative Valadao knows that our community relies on these vital programs to survive, but he chose to stand with wealthy billionaires, not working families in Kern County.
- Republicans in Congress should be ashamed for passing this catastrophic bill that slashed Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion in the next decade.
- These cuts will have massive, devastating impacts on Medi-Cal, which more than one-third of Californians rely on for health care… more than three million Californians could lose Medi-Cal coverage — including lower-wage workers and children. California will also lose more than $4 billion in rural health care funding, which has already caused Kern County’s public health department to close a clinic, reduce appointments by 67%, stop mobile clinic services, and eliminate 35 jobs […]
- As California faces a care shortage, programs like IHSS are vital for the health of our community. I believe that access to affordable health care should be available to everyone, and should never be taken away from people.
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