Major layoffs at Alameda Health System, Alameda County’s safety net hospital system, have quickly led to disarray and dysfunction — from overflowing trash cans to delayed lab testing for emergency department patients — according to doctors, nurses and other medical staff.
Alameda Health System, whose facilities include the flagship Wilma Chan Highland Hospital in Oakland, announced in December it will lay off 247 employees, roughly 4% of its workforce. Hospital leaders attribute the cuts to HR 1, the GOP-led 2025 legislation that made unprecedented cuts to Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for low-income residents. As a result, AHS — which gets about 60% of its revenue from Medicaid payments — is projected to lose $100 million in revenue annually by 2030.
The situation at AHS is one of the first and most public displays of hardship at the nation’s public hospitals under the drastically reduced funding environment set forth by HR 1, often called the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”…