On September 17, nurses, community members, organizers, and local organizations joined together to demonstrate a ‘Healthcare Die-In’ at Kern Medical. During the demonstration, individuals portrayed as deceased patients lay on the ground with tombstones that listed their cause of death. Some of these read RIP Kicked off Medical, RIP No In-Home Care, RIP No Immigrant Healthcare, RIP No Suicide Hotline. Each of these reasons aligns with what many have endured since David Valadao signed budget cuts into the healthcare system.
The One Big Beautiful Bill since its passing and approval in the legislature has proposed to cut between 800 billion and 1 trillion in Medicaid. Valadao’s support of this bill, has already placed a heavy burden on many of his constituents 67 per cent of whom rely on Medi-Cal and Medicaid. His commitment to passing these budget cuts of almost 90 million, has also impacted Central Valley Hospitals.
Many of these hospitals are based in rural communities where the majority rely heavily on healthcare access. Just about 20 million was taken from Adventist Health in Hanford, about 24 million from Kern Medical Center, 28 million from Bakersfield Memorial Health, about 8 million from Sierra View Medical Center in Porterville, and 7 million from Delano Regional Medical Center. With these budget cuts not only are hospitals struggling to stay afloat, but some of their most rigid centers have since been shut down.
Sandy Redding, a registered nurse who worked at Memorial Hospital for over 35 years, and president of the California Nurses Association, shared that it does not take 35 years to understand the importance of healthcare.
“Nurses know it doesn’t take 35 years of experience to understand one simple truth. When healthcare funding is cut, patients don’t stop getting sick. They wait longer, they travel farther, and often arrive at our bedsides sicker. They put off appointments. They stretch the prescription, especially the diabetics. They hope the pain goes away; they tell themselves they can make it another week until they can’t,” said Redding.
She added that since both Valadao and Vince Fong decided to stand against their community members’ needs, those districts they represent are now facing drastic changes and challenges.
“This summer we saw a glimpse of what these cuts mean for our community. Memorial Hospital closed its Grossman Burns Center. That means that people have to travel an hour and a half to two hours to get the burn care they need, and that could be lethal. That means people could die,” added Redding.
Rachel’s Corpuz, an Arvin resident and constituent of Valadao’s 22nd District shared the importance of being informed on issues impacting health care and showing up to these demonstrations.
“The importance that I notice is that with these cuts that they made, it’s our taxes. We pay taxes so where is the money going? They charge us taxes and tax us more than the rich. But when it comes to our health? We’re getting our resources cut,” said Corpuz
She added “Valadao lies, I’ve presented myself on different occasions, in conferences in which he has said that he would be present and he never shows.”