Contact: Molly Weedn | molly@weednpa.com
Reckless initiative has qualified for the November 2026 ballot, putting millions of vulnerable patients at risk of losing access to health care
Sacramento, CA – The dangerous initiative that will force community health centers to cut services and close their doors, has qualified for the November 2026 ballot, putting millions of lives at risk.
A broad and growing coalition of doctors, community health centers and clinics, patient advocates and social justice groups have come together to oppose the initiative.
A report from the Berkeley Research Group shows that the measure would divert $1.7 billion away from patient care into new state bureaucracy in the first year alone, forcing community health centers and clinics to drastically reduce patient services and even close.
“This initiative will have a devastating impact on patients and the community clinic workers who care for them,” said Cephas Mugerwa, MPH, Board Secretary of CommuniCare+Ole. “Community clinics provide whole-person, whole-community care to millions of patients across the state through interdisciplinary teams that include doctors, nurses, promotoras, social workers, community benefit managers and more. The measure would force clinics to eliminate critical services or close altogether, leaving patients without care and health care workers without jobs.”
The poorly drafted measure contains arbitrary exclusions that threaten vital services essential to patient care, including nurse and physician managers, translation services, health care coverage enrollment navigators, patient transportation, and community outreach and education. The measure even excludes funding to expand and build new clinics—preventing community health centers from increasing access to care in communities that need it most. These arbitrary exemptions make no sense and will result in cuts to critical patient services.
“As the Director of Community Partnerships and Engagement, my job is to ensure that our patients understand their health insurance coverage, have transportation to and from their appointments, and can access translation services that help them receive the culturally competent care they deserve,” said Marina Lopez-Rabindranath, Director of Community Partnerships and Engagement, Community Health Systems Inc (CHSI). “This initiative includes arbitrary language that could lead to positions like mine being eliminated. At a time when patients are already facing growing obstacles to health care – including funding federal cuts and ICE agents in parking lots – it’s unfathomable that proponents would add even more obstacles for vulnerable patients seeking care.”
“This is the worst time in history to attack community clinics and the millions of patients we serve,” said Francisco Silva, President & CEO of the California Primary Care Association, serving more than 2300 community health centers and clinics across the state. “This measure will result in more than $1.7 billion being taken directly out of community health centers. Clinics will be forced to reduce services and doors will be closed, jeopardizing millions of patients access to care. This attack on the most vulnerable patients in California is an unwarranted power play that will cost lives. We remain steadfast in our commitment to defeating this dangerous, cynical measure.”
A full coalition list and additional information about the dangers this initiative would impose can be found at: https://protectpatientsca.com/