Gov. Schwarzenegger's Proposed Budget Cuts Endanger Immigrant Health Programs

Health care advocates are organizing campaigns to defeat the proposed budget cuts that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger has made public in response to the extreme financial crisis that the Golden State faces. The proposed cuts would particularly harm low income families, immigrants and children - three extremely vulnerable sectors of our society in which Mexican Americans and other Latinos are over-represented.

The revised 2009 budget proposal presented by Governor Schwarzenneger on May 15 intends to address the $15.2 billion shortfall and also create a $2 billion reserve.

The proposed health care cuts total $2.2 billion. Among other things, the proposal would:

• Rollback Medical eligibility levels, potentially excluding 1 million Californians from this service.
• Eliminate the Healthy Families program, denying coverage to over 1 million children.
• Limit health services to legal immigrants over 20 years old, potentially affecting over 80,000 people.
• Eliminate funding for several community clining programs, including those serving farmworkers and Native Americans.
• Eliminate maternal, child and adolescent health grants to local health jurisdictions.

A more extensive analysis of the budget proposal and its impact on Californians is presented by Health Access in a fact sheet you can access here.