By The Opinion
The law that Donald Trump called “Big and Beautiful” was passed as HR1 last July 4. For the low-income population it was bad news, because it contains a serious reduction in social spending. The law cuts billions of dollars annually from Medicaid (Medi-Cal) and food assistance (SNAP or CalFresh) budgets.
Following changes to federal eligibility and work requirements that H.R. 1 establishes, about 200,000 Los Angeles County residents, 20% of them children, have since lost membership in these programs. One million more of the 3.8 million Angelenos on Medi-Cal are at risk of following them. When these coverages are lost, the state cannot recover funds from the federal treasury.
For the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, this law means a revenue cut of $750 to $800 million. Every year.
As a result, at least 22 hospitals in the county are at risk of drastically reducing their services or closing their doors, as are a total of 83 statewide and 422 nationwide.
Of thirteen Public Service clinics, which provide vaccines, treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), tuberculosis (TB) and other essential care, seven have already closed. His patients, however, do not disappear. Waits in remaining hospitals and clinics, which were already exaggerated, are becoming even longer. Available services are reduced for everyone.
These closures have a cascading effect. Tens of thousands of jobs are being lost.
Because of this emergency, the county Board of Supervisors, by a 4-1 vote, placed Measure ER on the June 2 ballot.
If approved, the sales tax will rise starting in October by half of 1%, from 9.75% to 10.25%, for five years, after which it will return to its current level.
Measure ER, or Essential Services Restoration Act, will generate around $1 billion each year. According to the Board’s spending plan, at least 45% of that amount will fund free and low-cost care at nonprofit clinics for low-income, uninsured residents from a network of nonprofit providers. 22% will keep the county’s hospitals and clinics open and 10% will finance disease prevention and health inspections. Programs such as epidemiological surveillance, immunization and school health centers will also benefit.
The measure contains rigorous safeguards to ensure that every dollar is spent as intended and is publicly accountable.
A nine-member citizen oversight advisory committee will review all expenditures and report to the public. The group will include public health professionals, physicians, community clinic representatives and community activists.
The measure establishes an “identical outdated” tax, which allows its approval by half plus one of the votes. If it were a “special” and exclusive tax, it would require 66%.
Although it is always difficult to support an increase in the sales tax, which is regressive and especially taxes those who have the least, in this case we are convinced that there is no other alternative to overcome this crisis unnecessarily created by the Trump administration than this temporary measure.
For all these reasons, La Opinión supports Measure ER and asks its readers to vote for it on June 2.
