Gov. Gavin Newsom released his revised state budget with billions of dollars in spending reductions. One of the areas the governor is focusing on cutting is the health sector. The proposed cuts would affect millions of Californians.

Lourdes Lopez, a Los Angeles resident who sells home care products around her neighborhood for a few hours every day, said she would be impacted. 

“Mi pequeña con una discapacidad,” she said about her 13-year-old daughter, Alisson, who has down syndrome and needs special care.

It's why she’s worried about California’s proposed budget cuts to health care services. The state could eliminate in-home supportive services for individuals without immigration status. The cuts would also make it harder for Medi-Cal patients to get services.

The proposed budget cuts could affect programs and staffing at local and state levels.

But the cuts the governor has suggested wouldn’t affect his Health Insurance For All program, which covers low-income adults, including those who are undocumented.

The cuts in funding could also affect local community clinics such as St. John’s Community Health in South LA.

“To be honest, I don’t know how you make cuts to health,” said Darren Harris, the chief government affairs and community relations officer at St. John's.

St. John’s is a network of clinics in LA and the Inland Empire that provides medical, dental, mental health and other services to low-income, uninsured and under-insured people in the community.

Harris said the clinics will see an impact on their workforce.

“We are just holding our hands on top of our head because we understand that it's not only a hit to St. John’s as a community health clinic, but we understand that it's really going to hurt the families of our patients and our families," he said.

Public health departments would also be affected across the state. 

Michelle Gibbons, who represents local health departments across California, said that if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s how important these health agencies are.

“The biggest lesson of COVID-19 is that waiting until a crisis to invest in public health is a costly and deadly mistake that we can’t afford to repeat,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons also said the cycle of public health funding has been “Neglect. Panic. Repeat.”

While Lopez waits until June for lawmakers to approve a budget, she’s holding onto hope. She said she remains optimistic about the possibility the state budget will get another look before it is too late.