[EVAN] Good evening Chair Menjivar, I'm Evan Fern with Disability Rights California. We want to thank you for your leadership in pushing back against the IHSS cuts that are still present after the May Revise. IHSS recipients deserve access to backup providers and their residual program. Counties will struggle to afford the cost shift. The new Medi-Cal asset limit for people with disabilities and seniors is an inhumane and punitive attack on our most vulnerable. These are communities who rely on this critical health care and IHSS to survive. The limit isn't even close to enough to cover unplanned expenses like car repairs, home repairs, a hospitalization. It forces people to live in extreme poverty. Of the 62,000 people who will be kicked off of Medi-Cal in the next two years, 18,921 of them will lose access to IHSS. It's dangerous for people to lose access to this care, and it makes it harder, sometimes impossible, for people to stay in their home. Thank you. [ASM. MENJIVAR] Thank you.

Video Transcript: [EVAN] The California state budget is an important way for the state to show its support for people with disabilities and the services they rely on. We're here today with the LTSS4All Coalition, including people from organizations like Hand in Hand and the California Council of the Blind, here today to push back against these cuts. The things that we're worried about are eliminating the IHSS backup provider program, eliminating the IHSS residual program, which allows people to stay covered for IHSS while they're working to re enroll in Medi-Cal. And we're pushing back on a proposal to shift costs for IHSS hours from the state to the counties, especially at a time when counties are struggling with their budgets because of the federal H.R.1 bill that cuts services. [JULIA] While H.R.1 was being debated in Congress, I couldn't sleep for months. All I had to do was look at the numbers. I knew the $1 trillion federal Medicaid funding cuts would decimate IHSS, and therefore, my life, rather than following the Senate's lead and closing corporate tax loopholes and raising taxes on billionaires to make up for the funding cuts. Governor Newsom proposes taking away healthcare and caregivers from people with disabilities, older adults and immigrants. Shame on him! [CROWD] Shame on him! [ADVOCATE] We're not going to stand by while big corporations give their employees Medi-Cal applications instead of providing health care, we are not going to stand by while people with disabilities are harmed by these cuts and are called waste, fraud and abuse by RFK. Let me be clear. People with disabilities are not waste, fraud, or abuse. We contribute to our communities every single day, but we rely on Medicaid to live in those communities. If California doesn't act to protect that care, it will be complicit in forcing people out of their homes and into institutions. [JULIA] Every day in my life that I can remember, I've been terrified. I'm terrified that one day you and yes, I'm talking about you won't notice or care if I'm not here in your schools, workplaces, restaurants, or anywhere else you spend your time. Because without Medi-Cal, I literally can't survive. Medi-Cal pays for a program called In-Home Support Services IHSS, where caregivers help me get out of bed, go to the bathroom, shower, get dressed, meal prep, run errands, and go on very, very hot dates. [CROWD LAUGHS] [CROWD WOOS] Oh yeah, that's what IHSS just is all about but without all of us deciding that IHSS matters, the Julia's of the world will once again be segregated into an institution away from mainstream society, away from you.

Video Transcript: [ASM. GONZALEZ] Balancing a budget on the backs of seniors and people with disabilities and veterans is disgraceful. [REPORTER] With the budget deadline quickly approaching, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, staffers and advocates held a news conference on the Capitol lawn Monday to sound the alarm on proposed changes to Medi-Cal and in-home supportive services (IHSS). The changes could threaten eligibility and care for seniors and tens of thousands of Californians with disabilities. [KATE] It allows people like me with disabilities to live safely and independently at home. [REPORTER] Kate Laddish of Yolo County, is president of the California In-Home Supportive Services Consumer Alliance. She says people have been fighting to save their IHSS care for months now. [KATE] People are absolutely terrified, and this isn't what's going to fix the state budget. The $2,000 asset limit harkens back to 1989. That's when the Supplemental Security Income asset limit was put at $2,000. So 1989, that has not gone up. [REPORTER] Advocates say removing all of these proposed cuts and changes from the budget is more than the right thing to do. It'll also save the state money. [KATE] They're able to access care, and that keeps people out of the emergency room. It's there's cost savings to that. [REPORTER] In response, the Governor's office says in part, “federal policies have imposed substantially higher costs and requirements on both state and local governments for the health and human services programs. They provide to their citizens. Even though state revenues have increased, the additional costs mean they won't be able to be sustained on an ongoing basis without modification.” The May revision maintains billions in funding for health care. Medi-Cal alone is $45 billion of the general fund in 2026-27. One disability rights advocate who stands to lose care with the proposed changes made a direct and personal plea to Governor Newsom. [ELIZABETTE] Don't forget your Jesuit roots. [REPORTER] Elizabette Guecamburu of Stanislaus County says she and Newsom both graduated from Santa Clara University with the same political science major, though several years apart. [ELIZABETTE] I'd like the governor to remember what we were taught. [REPORTER] She points to the school's emphasis on the three C's of competence, conscience, and compassion.

Slide 3: Video Transcript: [PAULA] I heard a lot of people having issues managing their diabetes. They explained they had issues accessing their medication in a timely matter, and they also complained about the delay in food and the irregularity of the of the meals. Another big issue that I heard was, concerns with respiratory illnesses going around. They explained there was waves of flu, waves of fever in different units and not not having medication to, you know, cope with those with those symptoms. So it just shows that the facility is not adequate. It was not prepared to serve so many people. (Former Detainee #2) My head was hurting so much. My my eyes, my my entire body was hurting and I was sweating them out. I was like coughing a lot, (Person Off-Screen) Coughing? (Former Detainee #2) coughing a lot. Coughing, mucus, a lot of mucus. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't breathe because they're not clean. But we had to do everything there. (Former Detainee#1) When we were there, they were very clear from the beginning because we were cleaning since we were there and it was for our health because we all started to get sick at the beginning. We had colds, we had coughs. We started to get fevers. So we all started to clean but they were very clear from the beginning, "We are not going to pay for that work." Which was actually their responsibility because they had to keep it clean for us even though we lived there and we cleaned our own place, our beds, our space. But they had to have the tables and everything clean, but we had to do it ourselves because they wouldn't. Not even the garbage, nothing nothing. We had to throw away our trash, pick up our trash, wash our bathrooms, clean our tables. Clean absolutely everything. (Richard) People were not getting basic needs met, which included access to water, access to regular access to food and clothing. Water jugs that they were putting in different units were being filled in the morning, but and in maybe in the afternoon, in the evening. But they weren't there during the middle of the day. So people were were getting dehydrated, you know, this was affecting their health. People were getting, food at, you know, at varying times of the day. And this has a specific effect on people with disabilities. Someone who has diabetes, for example, they they take their insulin, but they also need to balance out their blood sugar with food. This was an issue for people that we heard, that, you know, we're having this problem and not being able to, to regulate themselves and, and having symptoms because of that.