Community clinics in North San Diego County are protesting the governor's proposed cuts to health care programs. Clinic directors say the cuts will devastate the local safety net.
To help balance the state's budget, Governor Schwarzenegger wants to eliminate the Healthy Families program. That program provides health, dental, and vision coverage for children of the working poor.
Barbara Mannino is CEO of the Vista Community Clinic. She says if Healthy Families is eliminated, 75,000 children in the county will lose their health insurance.
"It's going to affect the entire health of our community, and the most vulnerable, the children," Mannino says. "That's what I can't understand. Why would anyone attack the most vulnerable population that we have, our children, our babies, our infants."
The governor also wants to cut a program that helps clinics provide care for poor families who don't qualify for public insurance.
