Transcription
The California Healthcare Foundation recently released its 2026 survey regarding uh what Californians are concerned about. There's some surprising and startling findings. Uh in a state known for high housing costs, worries about medical bills and access to health care uh now exceed concerns about housing, uh groceries, or other related concerns.
Nearly two in three Californians, 64% are worried about unexpected medical bills. Uh this reflects the extraordinary cuts in health care access from the federal level. And it's not just to medical, which of course we've been squarely focused on, but the reality of people actually now having to grapple with the costs of um access to health insurance on the health exchanges known here in California as Covered California uh and the many other pressures uh that people are facing in the health care space.
We're continuing to push uh that message uh in uh Sacramento. uh continuing to find uh allies in those efforts. Uh we are continue to do our work to put together the the recommended budget which will be published on May 1st. Uh we have had um recent community engagement efforts and outreach. Uh and we continue to track changes at the federal level and the state level that impact us.
Uh we will of course provide much more wholesome preview uh when we get uh to budget workshops, but I'll give you just one example of the kinds of things that continue to pop up uh that unfortunately bring negative news our way. Uh for instance, uh we rely heavily on what is known as the 340B drug pricing program for uh pharmaceuticals purchased by the health system. Uh unfortunately, thanks to uh what's called Trump RX, uh we are now staring down over a $20 million hit to our pharmacy uh program here at the county.
Uh we see shock waves kind of left and right. We um did complete the bidding process related to the midyear positions. We are moving forward with a a new effort to ensure that we provide more comprehensive information. We are putting together a program called Navigating Change Together that'll be available for all county employees that will walk through the various provisions. Uh we will uh be uh sharing that with all county employees in the coming weeks uh well in advance of the budget process. We'll continue to take every step that we can to try to communicate uh what we know and don't know. uh when we can know what we might expect to know.