Rep. Aguilar Discusses How Republican Health Care Cuts Will Devastate the Southern California Health Care System with St. John’s Community Health Network CEO

Instead of working with Democrats to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits and keep health care affordable for millions of people, Republicans in Congress chose to shut down the government

Rep. Pete Aguilar (CA-33) recently sat down with Jim Mangia, President and CEO of St. John's Community Health Network, for a discussion on how Republican cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act will harm the Southern California health care system and drive up costs for everyone. Democrats are continuing to call on Republicans to come back to Congress to negotiate a deal that will reopen the government and fix the health care crisis Republicans have created. You can watch the full discussion between Rep. Aguilar and Jim Mangia here and read an excerpt from the conversation below:

Rep. Pete Aguilar: House Democrats are fighting for the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits as well. The importance of that and ensuring that people have health care. So this isn't just about the Medicaid population. This is about people with healthcare.gov. This is about where will people go, the 30,000 clients that you have, where will they go if they don't have health care? They're going to go to the emergency room, which is the most expensive place to get care. So it's going to affect everyone. Is that fair to say? Not just your clients, the health care system will be disrupted when this fully goes into effect.

Jim Mangia, President & CEO, St. John's Community Health: Well, you know, 90 percent of our patients are on Medi-Cal, but 10 percent are Covered California, on healthcare.gov, and they're all going to lose their subsidies. So it's going to be devastating for working people, middle-class people. Everyone is going to suffer. And that's why I think this fight that the Democrats are urging and doing on the federal level is so important for us who are providing health care on the front lines, because we need our Representatives to be fighting for health care for our patients. And you are…I think we can win if we get together and we know who we're fighting for, without a doubt.

St. John's Community Health Network is one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Care (FQHC) providers in Southern California. They operate over 28 clinics in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, providing medical, dental, mental health and substance use services to underserved and diverse communities.