Beginning in July, Contra Costa County will no longer provide nonemergency services to undocumented immigrants, making it the second California county to adopt such a policy.
Sacramento County also stopped providing nonemergency care to undocumented immigrants this year.
A California Healthline special report by Mina Kim on the move in Contra Costa County includes comments from:
- Sonal Ambegaoker, a health policy attorney for the National Immigration Law Center;
- Carmella Castellano-Garcia, president and CEO of the California Primary Care Association;
- Neil Jayasekera, an emergency department physician at Contra Costa County Regional Medical Center; and
- William Walker, director of the Contra Costa County health department.
Walker said a mounting budget deficit pushed the county to adopt the restriction, but Jayasekera and Castellano-Garcia say the cuts will simply push the costs to hospital emergency departments and community clinics (Kim, California Healthline, 4/9).