SD Board of Supervisors to create plan to let residents know if their benefits are at risk

Terra Lawson-Remer at a Board of Supervisors meeting File photo courtesy Terra Lawson Remer s office The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has voted - in favor of a creating a plan that will let residents know if their benefits are at vulnerability due to current federal budget cuts The plan according to a declaration from Chair Terra Lawson-Remer s office after the Tuesday vote will use texts calls emails and local outreach partners to ensure impacted families are informed connected to help and are better prepared when federal benefit disruptions hit During the Tuesday meeting Lawson-Remer explained the county has a massive massive dilemma on its hands and necessities to figure out to how to help hundreds of thousands of San Diegans who may lose healthcare or food assistance Lawson-Remer commented the notification system expands on earlier board actions including a joint request with Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe for staff to begin operational and budget planning in response to the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act H R Earlier this month the Republican-controlled U S House of Representatives and Senate passed H R on a mostly party-line vote President Trump then signed the budget into law on July During a Board of Supervisors meeting in late June the notification system proposal failed on a - vote in part because it was prior to the official passage of H R a spokesman for Lawson-Remer disclosed adding the board will subsequently have to approve that notification plan later this year In a related action supervisors on June voted - in favor of an amended proposal directing county staff to prepare for anticipated cost shifts in the federal budget Lawson-Remer Montgomery Steppe and Joel Anderson voted yes while Desmond voted no Based on a suggestion from Anderson that proposal included the county sending letters to its Congressional delegation and state elected personnel on how workable cuts would impact residents According to a county staff analysis on Tuesday H R would cut more than million annually from food assistance affecting more than San Diegans including children and nearly seniors force the county to hire up to additional full-time employees costing up to million per year to maintain current processing times under new Medi-Cal application requirements require up to additional full-time county employees also at million a year to manage increased CalFresh requirements and avoid processing backlogs impose new work requirements on over Medi-Cal recipients including removing exemptions for veterans and homeless individuals thereby threatening access to care reduce retroactive Medicaid and CHIP coverage to one month increasing diagnostic debt for families and raising county costs for new Medi- Cal recipients increase the number of uninsured San Diegans which would raise non- compensated care costs for local hospitals and safety-net providers lead to more frequent crisis room visits and psychiatric hospitalizations due to less preventative care upshot in healthcare industry job losses due to reduced federal funding and higher administrative costs and also increase employment across other sectors and increase the exposure of homelessness via cuts in healthcare food and income patronage Lawson-Remer added the notification system will build on a broader federal fallout readiness plan that includes staffing up Medi-Cal and CalFresh processing reforming an outdated reserves strategy housing stability and behavioral vitality stake and finding more money to protect basic services Chief Administrative Officer Ebony Shelton will summary back later this year with an implementation timeline ensuring notifications are ready to launch as soon as new federal cuts and regulations are finalized Lawson- Remer noted Calling the notification unnecessary Desmond was the lone no vote We need to safeguard programs like CalFresh for future generations he revealed And I want people who really need it to get it Desmond noted that with federal ruling body being trillion in debt and California facing a billion to billion revenue gap cuts need to be made He added that there are able-bodied adults without dependents in San Diego County who receive CalFresh benefits This isn t about taking food out of people s mouths who truly need it Demond declared Supervisor Paloma Aguirre thanked Lawson-Remer and Montgomery Steppe for bringing the initiatives as it will be bring a lot of necessary hope to residents that are facing these callous cuts Aguirre stated she spent the last six months talking to families receiving benefits who are struggling and are terrified that they will lose their in-home care services