photo credit: Harrison Keely/wikimedia

Health care advocates plan to rally outside State Senator Mike McGuire's office in Santa Rosa Thursday, urging the senate leader to stop cuts to Medi-Cal proposed in the state budget.

A limit on assets, new premiums for undocumented recipients, and a cap on enrollment have all been floated by Governor Gavin Newsom as fixes to California's over-stretched Medi-Cal budget.

California is required to pass a budget by June 15th; and a variety of health care, immigrant, labor, and disability advocates are calling on McGuire to halt any cuts to the critical program.

Kiran Savage-Sangwan, with the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network said, thanks to Medi-Cal, "people in the state have better health, healthcare is less expensive and we have fewer uninsured residents."

"What the governor is proposing really retreats from that progress," Savage-Sangwan said. 

Savage-Sangwan argued the governor's proposal to asses $100 monthly premiums for undocumented adults, plus cut dental and long term care based on immigration status is discriminatory.

Health care advocates estimate close to one million Californians could lose health insurance if the cuts go through.

Newsom is looking to trim over $5 billion from Medi-Cal's expenses, and some California Republicans argue the decision to admit immigrants to the MediCal rolls has been a big driver of the program's rising cost.

Savage-Sangwan said she'd like the state to tackle costs in a different way.

"We can reduce the cost of healthcare, we can save money in the Medi-Cal program, but not by eliminating access to care for vulnerable populations right?" Savage-Sangwan said. "We need to look at where real savings can be found in the program and in our healthcare system as a whole. The profiteering in health plans, hospitals, prescription drugs, those are things that should be scrutinized as well as the employers, large employers who fail to provide health insurance for their employees."

Savage-Sangwan said she hopes to see California address unequal tax policies to help balance the state budget, instead of cutting service for immigrant and working class Californians.

Thursday's rally is planned outside Senator McGuire's Santa Rosa field office at 50 D St. at 10:30 A.M.