Every day, I see patients on edge. As a medical assistant, I help patients get the care they need while helping our office run smoothly. But as costs keep going up and resources are spread thin, our patients’ stress is soaring.
Patients may not have all the details, but they know California is in the early days of a health care crisis. And the worst is yet to come.
Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” slashed $100 billion in health care funding to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires. These cuts eliminate health care coverage for up to 3.4 million Californians and double insurance premiums for millions more. Having private insurance won’t save you, either. The more public programs lose funding, the more costs are shifted onto private insurers and employers.
In hospitals and clinics across the state, we’re feeling the effects. More layoffs to offset dwindling revenues. Staff stretched to their breaking point. In the Bay Area alone, 14 hospitals are at risk closing, cutting services, or laying off staff. That’s even before the worst of the cuts take effect.
It doesn’t need to be this way. California voters can right this wrong.
This November, we all have the chance to vote “yes” on Proposition 40. By voting “yes,” we can make billionaires finally pay their fair share in taxes to keep hospitals and emergency departments open and health care accessible for millions of Californians.
Prop. 40 will make California’s richest 200 billionaires pay a modest, one-time emergency tax. Only residents worth more than $1 billion will pay. And because of current loopholes for the superrich, most of the eye-watering $2 trillion in wealth held by California billionaires has still yet to be taxed.
The measure will raise about $100 billion, effectively replacing the health care funding Trump and his billionaire donors have already taken from California. The funds will go directly into shoring up California’s ailing health care system, saving clinics and hospitals while preventing millions of Californians from losing their insurance or seeing their premiums skyrocket. Additionally, it will help prevent layoffs of public school teachers and keep children fed through food assistance programs.
Without Prop. 40, the outlook is dire. Patients won’t be able to cover even the basics, like prescriptions. People in crisis will show up at the nearest ER, seeing it permanently closed, with the nearest help being miles away. Mass layoffs and short staffing will mean those who can get into a hospital will still be at risk.
This is a matter of life and death. At least, that’s how we should be discussing it. Sadly, a few morally bankrupt billionaires would rather spend tens of millions of dollars trying to avoid paying their fair share than save California’s health care.
Not content with lying about Prop. 40, billionaire tech bros like Sergey Brin are also advancing two poison pill ballot measures, Prop. 41 and Prop. 42. Voting “no” on those is as critical as voting “yes” on Prop. 40.
Props. 41 and 42 were crafted to trick voters into undoing Prop. 40. Yet despite their slick marketing, the initiatives were never about helping taxpayers, audits or retirement savings. They are about giving billionaires backdoors to destroy Prop. 40, even if they fail to defeat the measure head-on.
It’s easy to see the real goals of Props. 41 and 42. Just look at who’s behind them. Sergey Brin, the Google founder whose wealth has doubled to $300 billion since the inauguration, is one of the primary financial backers of both initiatives. Most sane people would think it makes more sense to spend on essential health care than on misleading ad campaigns, but not Sergey.
Most of us don’t have that kind of money to waste. That’s why we can’t afford to fall for billionaires’ lies. Fortunately, most of us aren’t.
Voters consistently support Prop. 40 by large, double-digit margins among union households, health care workers and Democratic voters. Even a majority of independent voters support the measure.
None of us is powerless. We can keep hospitals and ERs open and health care accessible by making billionaires pay their fair share. Join me in voting “yes” on Prop. 40 and “no” on Props. 41 and 42, to tax billionaires and save lives.
Caroline Lanzas is a medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara and is a member of SEIU-UHW and the YES on 40 coalition.