Rural health care ‘on life support’: Thompson, Huffman and McGuire hold town hall

Elected officials and health care professionals say an already strained system will be gutted by impending federal cuts

March 11, 2026

State Senator and Congressional candidate Mike McGuire (D-Santa Rosa), U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) and U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) held a town hall meeting at Santa Rosa High School auditorium in Sonoma County on Tuesday to discuss a health care system in crisis.

The two congressmen — alongside McGuire, who Thompson said is “coming to Congress” and Huffman called a “future colleague” — were joined by a panel of health care experts. Panelists included Meghan Hardin, regional vice president of the California Hospital Association; Dr. Nicole Barnett, CEO of Planned Parenthood NorCal; Gaby Bernal Leroi, CEO of Santa Rosa Community Health; and Ryan Skolnick from the California Nurses Association.

“… There’s $1 trillion of cuts that have been approved to the Affordable Care Act (and) an additional $32 billion worth of cuts that have been advanced for subsidies to lower the price of federal health care benefits in this country,” McGuire told members of the audience in his introductory remarks. “… What we know here in Sonoma County, what we know across the state, these cuts are devastating to working families, devastating to kids and seniors,” adding that due to the delayed effects of H.R.1, “millions Californians by mid-2027 will be without health care for months, if not years.”

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By:  Robert Schaulis
Source: Eureka Times-Standard