An Opportunity to Improve Healthcare on the North Coast

Dear community,

We all know that accessing healthcare can be difficult in our region. Rural areas, like ours, simply don’t get enough resources.

This Fall, voters in Humboldt and Del Norte have a unique opportunity to support our local healthcare system by voting yes on Proposition 35. This is a unique, generational opportunity to secure funding for our MediCal system.

Proposition 35 is a ballot measure that will protect state and federal dollars for healthcare.

Proposition 35 has no effect on individual taxpayers. It forces the government to fund healthcare for Californians who need it most, without raising individual taxes.

Most federal funding for health care in California – including services for the elderly, children on MediCal, and some of our community’s most vulnerable people – is calculated by matching federal dollars to state funding.

Insurance companies called Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) manage the funding and direct the money to hospitals, medical practices, and community health centers like Open Door.

Fifteen years ago, California introduced a tax on the federal funding earmarked for MCOs, which allows the government to take that healthcare money and put it back into their budget to use as they like.

Over the last decade, California has diverted over $30 billion from healthcare to pay debts and prioritize other programs.

Our community (and many across our state) have keenly felt the effects of this loss of funding for healthcare.  It makes our community sick. It makes us unwell. Each year the pressure on hospital emergency rooms grows, because people cannot access primary care services that can support their health and wellbeing or cannot access them quickly enough.

The imminent closure of Mad River Community Hospital’s obstetrics department is just the most recent example of funding inadequacy, placing pregnancy services in Humboldt County at risk.

Let’s be clear: our state is taking away federal money intended to make our community healthier.

We now have an opportunity to close this loophole in November and get those federal dollars back into healthcare, where they were supposed to go.

I want to ask every member of our community to please vote YES on Prop 35. It forces the government to properly fund healthcare we need without raising individual taxes.

Community health centers, hospitals, and many healthcare organizations are behind this. You can find out more at www.voteyes35.com.

It’s not the whole solution, but it is a step towards addressing California’s healthcare crisis. This affects everybody and Republicans, Democrats, and political parties of all stripes support this.

Let’s take a big step in ensuring control of our community’s health this November.

Join me in voting YES on Prop 35!