Health Access Supports
Proposition 3
Health Access supports Proposition 3 as it makes permanent the state’s high-income earner tax that is used to fund public services. Since their initial enactment in 2012, these higher tax rates have generated around $120 billion for schools and other essential services, including Medi-Cal. Losing these revenues would make it difficult to maintain current levels of access across many public services, and would further erode health care funding already on the brink from federal H.R. 1 cuts.
Our state’s highest earners have only gotten richer since this was last passed in 2016, while most Californians have lost ground or experienced lower incomes – even after adjusting for inflation. The richest 0.1% of Californians now have 268 times the income of middle-income Californians. Without the passage of Prop 3, billionaires would receive yet another tax cut while most of us struggle to pay for rent, food, and health care.
Health Access supported the previous extensions of this tax to support funding for our health care programs, and we support making them permanent now by passing Prop. 3.
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Health Access Opposes
Proposition 39
Health Access Opposes Prop 39 which would amend the state Constitution to require California voters to prove their identity using a government ID before being allowed to vote. Putting more barriers in place to vote does not safeguard our election system, it only prevents many eligible voters from casting their ballot, weakening our democratic process. These restrictions disproportionately impact communities of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, those experiencing housing insecurity, young people, and other low-income communities.
Elections have clear impacts on our health care. We cannot address systematic health inequities if the people impacted by health polices lose the ability to make their voices heard.
Prop. 39 would also impose substantial costs on state and local governments without any way to pay for it. This would force governments to shift costs away from existing public services, like health care, to pay for its administration, wasting resources on a nonexistent problem.
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Proposition 41
Health Access opposes Prop 41 which requires the state auditor to review any special tax proposal before it goes to voters. This additional bureaucracy would place new barriers to enacting future tax measures at a time when local and state governments need flexibility to raise new revenues we will need in the coming years to fully fund state services, restore health care cuts, and expand access.
Proposition 42
Health Access opposes Prop. 42 which would prohibit new taxes on the mere ownership of assets such as investment accounts, business interests and personal property. This is another way for the ultra-rich to dodge paying their fair share, avoiding a one-time tax on their huge wealth. It is just another measure that ties the hands of government to raise revenue for essential services, while giving billionaires another tax break.
Proposition 43
Health Access opposes Proposition 43, the “Taxpayer Deception Act”, as it requires a 2/3 supermajority vote to support local special taxes. This is threshold that is nearly impossible to meet and would allow a small minority of voters to silence the clear will of the majority, making it harder to hold large corporations accountable.
Since counties administer health and human services programs such as Medi-Cal, local funding has historically been a supplement to state and federal funding for our state’s safety net programs. With the coming cuts to our health care system from the federal H.R. 1 bill, it is crucial that local governments have all the tools at their disposal to raise the funding needed to backfill some of those losses and ensure residents can continue to access care.
If Prop 43 would pass, it would make it harder for communities to come together to fund critical infrastructure from health care to schools to fire departments.
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