overwhelmed. That’s the trickling impact that effects all people, and health care [costs] go up for everyone.” Stresses Bernal Leroi: “It’s much more challenging to get people in [for preventive care] if they don’t have insurance.” And all those people being dropped from Medicaid, “they’ll go back to being uninsured,” she says. Of the community health center’s more than 42,000 low-income clients seen in eight clinics across the greater Santa Rosa region, 74% were covered by Medi-Cal and 11% by Medicaid, it reported in a patient snapshot. That same percentage qualifies as self-pay or uninsured. About a third of these low-income patients consists of children. Beyond the challenges for patients, the workforces of these community health organizations are also expected to experience the burden of burnout and stress among health care workers as more patients show up with more pressing issues. Clinicians will be forced to consider remedies and treatments that patients no longer covered by Medicaid or Medi-Cal can afford. This is what Bernal Leroi refers to as the “moral injury” of health care resulting from these cuts. “We’re already hearing anecdotal evidence of people’s concerns about coming in,” she says. That’s why the local
public outreach campaign to discuss the matter with patients at the time of scheduling and at arrivals in the Sonoma County clinics. Napa County’s health care arena is bracing for its own impact. “These changes [under the legislation] will directly impact our hospitals and the communities we serve,” says Luke McMurray, spokesman for Adventist Health of Roseville, with facilities in St. Helena and Napa. McMurray indicates the hospital staff is currently combing through the text of the bill to draw conclusions on its implications. “While the full extent of the impact of this bill on our hospitals is unclear, we do know that hospitals could lose significant Medicaid revenues over the next decade,” he says. “Hospitals will also see an increase in uncompensated
care losses, resulting from coverage losses and the cuts states will inevitably be forced to make due to federal funding reductions.” The county’s clinics and resource centers are also preparing for the worst. “There’s already a need for our services because of the higher cost of living,” UpValley Family Centers Executive Director Jenny Ocón says. The struggling
health care entity has remained proactive in fending off the effects as much as possible. The staff is waging a
Gaby Bernal Leroi, Santa Rosa Community Health CEO.
Jenny Ocón, UpValley Family Centers Excecutive Director.
26 NorthBaybiz
January 2026
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