EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. – The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors recently approved sending letters to the Governor, the President pro Tempore of the State Senate, and the Speaker of the Assembly requesting State action to mitigate severe fiscal and operational impacts on H.R. 1 on county safety net programs.

U.S. House of Representatives H.R. 1 is also known as the “Big Beautiful bill.”

Due to funding cuts at the federal level, the bill impacts health and nutrition services received by El Dorado County residents. The County joined other counties from around the state and developed a multi-year request for state funding of $1.9 billion in 2026-27 and $4.5 billion in 2027-28 to address an anticipated loss of $6 billion to $9.5 billion annually from H.R. 1.

Losses by counties

  • County Indigent Care – $761 million in 2026-27 and $2.4 billion in 2027-28 and ongoing
  • Public Hospital Systems – $500 million in 2026-27 and $850 million in 2027-28 and ongoing
  • County Eligibility – $373 million in 2026-27 and $402 million in 2027-28 and ongoing
  • County Behavioral Health – $224 million in 2026-27 and $828 million in 2027-28 and ongoing

Part of the letter that will go to Governor Newsom and other state leaders:

The county H.R. 1 multi-year budget request is intended to mitigate direct harm to El Dorado County residents who will lose health and nutrition services, as well as prevent cuts to other critical services that counties provide such as public safety and elections. With this funding, counties will be able to maximize the number of individuals who retain Medi-Cal and CalFresh, rebuild county indigent care programs to serve individuals who lose health coverage, and protect needed patient care in public hospitals. El Dorado County is eager to partner with the Legislature and the Administration to find workable fiscal and policy solutions to protect El Dorado County residents. Thank you for your consideration.

“H.R. 1 will increase county health and human services program costs due to expanded demand for indigent medical care, direct cost shifts to counties, increased county eligibility workload, and changes to Medi-Cal financing. The County of El Dorado has projected in recent years that mandated safety net program expenditures will soon exceed the realignment, state, and federal revenue for the programs. El Dorado County has been trying to address this upcoming funding challenge, but now in one year, due to H.R. 1, find that these mandated programs cannot be sustained without local discretionary revenues. This comes at a time when expenditure growth is outpacing growth in local discretionary revenues; in the current fiscal year the County reduced department’s reliance on local discretionary resources by 3% when compared to FY 2024-25.”  

The El Dorado County Supervisors voted 4-0 to approve sending the letters. Chair Brooke Laine was absent from the meeting due to Jury Duty.