Monday, February 2, 2026

CA Groups Seek Local Taxes to Offset Federal Health Care Cuts

By Lynn La, CALMATTERS

The imaging room at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles on July 26, 2022. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters

Would raising a county sales tax help local residents stave off federal health care cuts? A coalition of health care organizations and workers say yes.

As CalMatters’ Ana B. Ibarra explains, Restore Healthcare for Angelenos is pushing to place a measure on the June ballot that would ask Los Angeles County voters to decide whether the county could impose a half-cent sales tax through 2031. The money would go toward helping residents pay for primary and emergency care, as well as behavioral health needs for people who have lost their Medi-Cal coverage.

The coalition says the proposal would raise about $1 billion a year, and it’s working with Supervisor Holly Mitchell to present the motion to the county.

• Mitchell, in an emailed statement: “This option is on the table because what’s at stake are safety net services unraveling for millions of residents. … This is a last resort option for the times we’re facing.”

The board is expected to vote on the proposal next month. If it rejects putting the initiative before voters in June, the coalition will try for the November ballot.

The proposal is one of a handful of initiatives seeking money to offset federal cuts. In November voters in Santa Clara County approved a similar sales tax hike, and as pressure mounts on Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature for a statewide solution, some progressives and unions are pushing for a proposed billionaires tax to help backfill funds.

The sweeping federal spending plan President Donald Trump signed last summer cuts nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years to help counteract Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy. The state stands to lose tens of billions of dollars a year in federal funding and an estimated 3.4 million Californians are at risk to lose their Medi-Cal coverage over the next several years, according to state health officials.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.