BY ANDREW TIMBIE
Special to the Journal
New federal health care policies are taking effect across the country, bringing what many believe to be the largest reductions to Medicaid funding in recent memory. Here, in Stanislaus County, where Sierra Vista Child and Family Services works daily to keep families healthy and connected to behavioral health services, we are already seeing the effects.
Families are delaying or forgoing essential preventative and mental health appointments due to growing fears around loss of Medi-Cal eligibility or even widespread data sharing among federal immigration enforcement services. Many are now worried that simply accessing the services they’re eligible for could put them, or someone that they love, at risk.
In our county, where more than 20 percent of residents were born outside the U.S., and more than 45 percent rely on Medi-Cal for health coverage, the impacts are widespread. As reductions to Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California) are implemented, more individuals and families risk falling through the cracks, which can lead to life-changing consequences.
These changes will have an impact well beyond health coverage, as they will reshape our entire local system. Community clinics and rural hospitals are facing funding reductions. Nonprofits like ours, that partner with Medi-Cal to provide behavioral health, early childhood support, and substance-use treatment, will struggle to meet rising demand with fewer resources. The families we serve depend on these services not just for stability, but to stay employed, support their children in school, and recover from trauma.
Policy shifts now underway will make it more difficult for families to stay enrolled in Medi-Cal, because new administrative barriers make it harder to maintain coverage. Missing paperwork, unstable work hours, or language access challenges could now mean the loss of health care. This disproportionately affects working families, children, and immigrants with lawful status who already face systemic barriers to care.
When families lose care, our entire community feels the consequences. Employers experience higher absenteeism. Schools grapple with untreated mental health challenges in the classroom. Emergency rooms see rising pressure. Even private insurance carriers and providers could feel the burden, which would mean increased premiums for many more. These are ripple effects we cannot ignore.
At Sierra Vista, we will continue doing everything we can to help families stay connected to the support they need. But we can’t do this alone. We need leaders, neighbors, and partners across our community to speak up out of compassion and shared responsibility. We need to remind families that help is still available, and still worth seeking. And we need to ensure that no one decides that they won’t get the help they need to survive or thrive.
As a connected and interdependent community, we must come together to protect what matters most: our people.
— Andrew Timbie is the CEO of Sierra Vista Child and Family Services
