The Los Angeles County Health Care Coalition wants a half-cent sales tax

from Ana B. IbarraCalMatters

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Faced with federal funding cuts that could deprive hundreds of thousands of Angelenos of health insurance, clinic leaders, union members and patients gathered in Inglewood on Wednesday to support a temporary proposal they want to bring to voters: a county sales tax that would prevent service cuts and prevent more sick people from seeking primary care in emergency rooms.

The newly formed coalition, Restore Healthcare for Angelenos, is asking the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to place a five-year half-cent sales tax measure on the June ballot in Los Angeles County.

“The ballot measure we are proposing is an urgent and necessary step to stop the damage, to protect access to life-saving care,” said Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, one of the organizations in the coalition. “The stakes right now couldn’t be higher.”

When the federal spending plan, HR 1, goes into effect, Medi-Cal cuts and eligibility changes will affect millions of Californians. The state will lose $30 billion a year in federal funding.

According to the coalition, their proposal would raise about $1 billion a year for health care in Los Angeles County. The revenue would help create a local coverage program that would pay for primary and emergency care as well as behavioral health needs for people who drop out of Medi-Cal insurance and have no other coverage options, according to the coalition. When people are uninsured, uncompensated care at clinics and hospitals rises, threatening the availability of services for all, coalition leaders say.

The coalition is working with Supervisor Holly Mitchell, whose office presented the proposal to the county on Wednesday, an initial step before a public debate. The board is expected to vote next month; the deadline to place a board-sponsored measure on the June ballot is March 6.

“I do not take lightly asking fellow citizens to consider imposing a ½ percent retail sales tax,” Mitchell said in an emailed statement. “That option is on the table because what’s at stake is a collapse of safety net services for millions of residents — which would come at an even higher cost to the nation’s largest county.”

She added that if passed, the measure would expire on Oct. 1, 2031, and would be subject to public oversight and audits. “This is a last chance for the times we’re facing and for the voters to make the final decision,” Mitchell said.

If the Board of Supervisors does not approve the June ballot measure, the coalition will collect signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, said Jim Mangia, CEO of St. John’s Community Health, another member of the coalition.

Efforts to strengthen access to health care for poor Californians are not unique to Los Angeles. Pressure is mounting for state and county leaders to find new revenue streams to at least partially offset the federal losses. In a legislative hearing on Tuesdayhealth care providers and advocates also urged state lawmakers to seek creative funding solutions.

Last November, voters in Santa Clara County approved a tax similar to those proposed in Los Angeles County. Santa Clara Measure A would raise the local sales tax by five-eighths of a cent over five years. The county projects it will provide $330 million annually to local hospitals and clinics.

Both local proposals are separate from a push led by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West for a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of roughly 200 billionaires in the state, which would generate an estimate $100 billion in funding medical care and other social services at the state level. Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the initiative, arguing that such a tax would drive wealthy people — who pay a significant portion of the state’s income taxes — out of the state. That measure has not yet been placed on the November ballot.

The local and state tax proposals seem like they could compete for voters’ attention, as both are responses to the question of cutting federal funding. And in Los Angeles, voters may have to consider a number of other tax measures this election year from city hotel tax in June to a sales tax to support the Los Angeles Fire Department in November.

Mangia sees tax initiatives to finance health care as complementary. He said the state’s billionaire tax would help restore some federal cuts to Medi-Cal at the state level, while the Los Angeles County measure would help strengthen the local safety net.

“We’re doing this to make sure that no matter what happens at the federal level, Los Angeles County residents will have access to health care,” Mangia said.

Among the most important changes and cuts made in Trump’s major budget reconciliation law are a new requirement for enrollees to log 80 hours a month of school, work or volunteer work starting in 2027; a rule requiring people to renew coverage every six months rather than annually; limits on taxes the state imposes on insurers to help pay for the Medi-Cal program; and reducing the amount the feds will pay for emergency assistance to noncitizens.

State health officials estimate that 3.4 million Californians could lose their Medi-Cal coverage in the next few years.

Under its own mounting budget pressures, the state has also cut coverage for certain groups. Starting earlier this month, state health officials froze Medi-Cal enrollment for undocumented people — the state picks up most of the costs for that group because, except for emergency care, federal dollars cannot be used to cover people who are in the country illegally. This summer, the state will also cut non-emergency dental care for undocumented adults already enrolled in the program.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a cost they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

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