LOS ANGELES – The Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), a member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice (Advancing Justice), strongly opposes the proposed $2 billion in cuts to health and human services programs that aid the state’s low-income families.
In his May budget revision, Governor Jerry Brown has proposed cutting $1.2 billion from Medi-Cal, a health program for low-income individuals, and almost $880 million from CalWORKs, a program that provides basic assistance for mostly poor children. About half a million of Medi-Cal recipients and 35,208 of CalWORKs cases involve individuals of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander descent.
“California is recovering from a recession, and now safety net programs that are a lifeline to low-income and working families are being further threatened,” said APALC Policy Director Betty Hung. “We must not balance the state budget on the backs of vulnerable Californians.”
“The $1.2 billion proposed cuts to the health programs will devastate what is left of existing health programs after suffering from repeated cuts year after year,” said APALC Health Access Project Director Doreena Wong. “This is particularly unwise given federal and state efforts to expand health coverage through health care reform by 2014."
APALC serves many low-income Asian Americans who rely on Medi-Cal and CalWORKs, including Ms. T.*, a Cambodian American single mother who is a domestic violence survivor.
Ms. T – also a cancer survivor who is undergoing medical treatments – said CalWORKs helps her support her two young children. She is worried that any CalWORKs reduction would devastate her and her family.
“I am already struggling as it is. Even with the help I get from CalWORKs, I share a place with another family in order to survive. If I did not have the help, I'm afraid my two children and I would have to sleep on the street,” she said.
APALC, along with Asian Law Caucus (ALC), another member of Advancing Justice, and Chinese for Affirmative for Affirmative Action (CAA) have launched action alerts asking community members to contact legislators to dissuade them from enacting the cuts. To see APALC’s action alert, click here:
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50491/c/10214/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7819
* Ms. T is a pseudonym.
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