Santa Clara County health care leaders weren’t shy about voicing what’s in store for the future of public health at a forum hosted by San José Spotlight, as they brace for billions in revenue cuts.
Editor Moryt Milo, who moderated the Sept. 17 State of Health Care in Silicon Valley event, questioned panelists on the ramifications of $1 billion in federal Medicaid revenue cuts slated to hit the county’s public health care system, and their plans to tackle an estimated total $4.4 billion revenue drop through fiscal year 2029-30. These cuts are the result of federal slashes under President Donald Trump’s watershed budget bill H.R. 1.
The panelists addressing the problem included Santa Clara Valley Healthcare CEO Paul Lorenz; Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services Department Deputy Director Megan Wheelehan; Rachel Ruiz, Valley Physicians Group chair and pediatric gastroenterologist; Dolores Alvarado, Community Health Partnership CEO; and Pattie Beebe, a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center general staff developer and representative of the Registered Nurse Professionals Association…