What’s at stake?
Several Republican lawmakers in the central San Joaquin Valley voted earlier this year in favor of a budget proposal that would likely require cuts to Medicaid. Valley care workers for people with disabilities worry what that means for local programs like IHSS.
A pro-Medicaid rally Thursday organized by Central Valley disability rights activists and caregivers culminated in a roughly 20-minute conversation between a handful of protesters and workers outside U.S. Rep. Vince Fong’s field office in Clovis.
Disability Voices United, a statewide nonprofit, organized the rally in Clovis on Thursday, part of a week of demonstrations up and down the state from Palm Desert to Chico.
The activists targeted Fong and other Republican lawmakers who voted in February in favor of a budget proposal that would likely result in cuts to Medicaid funding.
“That’s not just policy. That is personal,” DeAndra Inman said at the rally. Her 6-year-old child with a disability depends on Medicaid for a range of services, from speech therapy to physical therapy.
“As her mother, it’s my job to protect her,” she added, “but I shouldn’t have to fight my own government to do that.”
The budget proposal in question calls on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees Medicaid, to cut $880 billion over the next 10 years. President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have prioritized renewing tax cuts from Trump’s first administration — and they’ve identified Medicaid as the sacrifice to make it possible.
Fong was one of multiple Republican congressmen in the central San Joaquin Valley to vote along party lines in favor of the budget proposal in February, despite high rates of Medi-Cal (California’s Medicaid) enrollment in the Valley.
One of those lawmakers – U.S. Rep. David Valadao, whose district had the highest Medi-Cal enrollment in the state last year – has since co-signed a letter alongside 11 other Republicans in Congress urging their colleagues to protect Medicaid.
Fong was not one of the signatories of that April 14 letter. His press secretary didn’t respond to a question Thursday about whether Fong was approached about signing it.
In an emailed statement to Fresnoland on Thursday morning, Fong voiced support for saving Medicaid for “those that need it most” while instituting “common-sense reforms.”
“Medicaid is an indispensable lifeline for our nation’s most vulnerable, and I’m working with my fellow members in Congress to strengthen this vital program for future generations,” Fong said in the statement. “We need to preserve this program for those who actually need it while making common-sense reforms that put it on a sustainable path.”
What happened at the Medicaid rally in Clovis?
Protesters initially organized on the sidewalk along Armstrong Avenue, outside the business park where Fong’s office is located.
Several spoke out to urge Fong and other lawmakers to vote against cuts to Medicaid. That included Rebecca Donabed, a recipient of In-Home Supportive Services, which is partially funded by Medicaid.
Using an assistive speech device, Donabed said that without Medi-Cal, she wouldn’t be as independent as she is today, holding down a job and going out into the community.
“My wheelchair cost about $20,000. Who can afford that?” she said.
IHSS workers help her with other tasks, including preparing meals.
“They help me with the things that I am unable to do for myself,” she said.
A handful of the protesters who live in Fong’s congressional district broke off from the rally to gather outside his office.
Fong staffers met the protesters outside, telling them that Fong wasn’t present, and talked with them for about 20 minutes before promising to relay their concerns to the congressman.
Clovis police briefly came by the rally Thursday, saying they’d received a call about some of the protesters causing a disturbance with the businesses in the area.
Fong’s staffers later said that two men had come up to the office earlier that afternoon and used “profanity.”
One of Fong’s staffers declined to comment on whether someone from the field office contacted police that day, referring Fresnoland to Fong’s press secretary.
How could Medicaid cuts impact IHSS programs?
Mary Schluter, a Fresno County IHSS worker, attended Thursday’s rally with her two daughters, Heather Walsh and Ellisia Nasalroad.
Through IHSS, Schluter provides in-home care for Ellisia, who has Down syndrome.
Schluter and almost 25,000 other home care workers in Fresno County are set to receive a raise for their work, following a tentative agreement the county reached with SEIU Local 2015 – the union representing the county’s IHSS workers.
Schluter celebrated the agreement Thursday, but said the potential Medicaid cuts are casting a shadow over the long-fought contract that ended over two years of negotiations.
“We fought so hard to get here,” Schluter said, “and now I’m wondering if the state is going to approve it?”
IHSS contracts, which are negotiated with each individual county across California, must also receive approval from the California Department of Social Services.
Schluter said she fears how Medicaid cuts would affect the services her daughter relies on.
“Are they going to cut hours from her services?” she said. “Are they going to take away the overtime from services?”
With fewer paid hours to care for Ellisia, Schluter said her family’s quality of life – including Ellisia’s, her daughter Heather’s, who takes care of Ellisia through another Medicaid-funded program called the Self-Determination Program, and her own – would collapse.
“We do not live luxuriously,” she said.
“These are the basic needs.”
