Hill Country Health and Wellness Center staff and patients — and residents  from Burney and the Intermountain area — traveled to the California State Capitol on Tuesday to protest health-care cuts to Medi-Cal benefits scheduled for today, July 1.

Some 200 clinic professionals and patients gathered on the capitol steps to hear physicians, politicians and patients decrying the cuts that penalize the poor while the top 2 percent of the wealthiest in the state are not paying their fair share in taxes.

The physicians emphasized that the health care  cut now will cost the state more in the long run as patients will have to go to the emergency rooms for treatment, or become more disabled as a result of untreated health issues.

The Hill Country center would lose more than $500,000 next year in adult dental care alone, said Lynn Dorroh, chief executive officer of the clinic.

The program services end today for approximately 2.8 million Medi-Cal enrollees, 120 service providers and 500 clinical sites throughout the state, according to rally sponsor, California Primary Care Association (CPCA), which represents most of the affected clinical service providers.   (Click here for more.)

Eileen Little of Burney

Staff of the Hill Country Clinic and Burney patients protest
health-care cuts to Medi-Cal recipients.

On the capitol steps

Hill Country clinic staff and patients speak with Jason Fox,
aide to Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, 2^nd District, who listened as the group
explained how healthcare cuts would affect them.

Notes and photos courtesy  of LC Russell