CA Attorney General Rob Bonta seeks to...

is asking for financial help because roughly 70% of its patients are on Medi-Cal. “No hospital loses by being a part of it. If you were going to lose money, you’d be against it.”

The transactions are routed through the California Health Foundation and Trust, the charity operated by the leadership of the California Hospital Association.

For example, Cedars-Sinai paid nearly $172 million in taxes in 2022, eclipsing the $151 million it got back in additional Medi-Cal dollars. To make up for the loss, it secured the nearly $28 million in grant revenue — earning nearly $6.9 million from the program, its commissioned tax audit shows.

Cedars-Sinai spokesperson

Duke Helfand acknowledged the benefit from the taxing scheme but said the health system effectively subsidizes Medi-Cal enrollees and incurs losses of more than $180 million annually serving those low-income patients. “Over the years, our teams at Cedars-Sinai have effectively managed our financial resources, enabling us to provide exceptional patient care,” Helfand said.

By comparison, the faith-based Adventist Health, which serves more poor people and operates roughly two dozen hospitals in California, Oregon, and Hawaii, paid $148 million in taxes in 2022 and reaped $401 million in additional Medi-Cal dollars through the program, according to its independent tax audit. It then contributed $3 million of that money to the charity.

These sorts of financing arrangements are under federal scrutiny. Officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have blasted “hold harmless” deals that can result in wealthier hospitals receiving enough money back that they ultimately wind up paying little or no tax at all.

“A health care-related tax cannot have a hold harmless provision that guarantees to return all or a portion of the tax back to the taxpayer,” Daniel Tsai, deputy administrator and director for the federal Medicaid agency, wrote in February.

Dave Regan, president of Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which represents hospital workers, has long lambasted California’s scheme as a ploy that lets wealthy hospitals siphon valuable health care dollars from smaller, rural hospitals that need more support for Medi-Cal patients.

PAGE 5 stance against the forces of hate to push back. So I created a Racial Justice Bureau to stand against racial justice in all its forms, including hate crimes, hate violence, hate incidents,” the attorney general earlier said.

Asked about the role of the Racial Justice Bureau and its goal, Bonta said “we created Racial Justice Bureau to call out racial injustice in the state of California in all its forms and we plan of fighting the ground and say we are going to fight the racial injustice and fight against the forces of hate, and organizations that are organized around hate and violate other people’s rights or commit crimes.”

“We’re going to take on racial injustice in our schools where our children were submitted to unfair disciplinary process, suspensions, expulsion, unwillful defiance, and discipline. So from children, to hate groups, to hate crimes to any civil rights issues where race and ethnicity are being used as a way to target to hurt or harm people, we will be involved and that’s our racial bureau has done,” he elaborated.

Putting up a Racial Justice Bureau, he said, would enable them to have a dedicated set of personnel within his office to facilitate and focus on racial injustices.

“It has taken resources from across our office and brought them into a team with a common goal to take on racial injustice. We are largely focusing on hate crimes given the environment and the landscape and the pain and hurt and the harm that Californians are suffering when it comes to hate crimes and so but it is to fight for racial justice and all its forms and what’s happening in California will define the work that we prioritize and what we do but right now what we do are on hate crimes,” he added.

Aside from hate crimes, Bonta also wants to address other equally significant and sociallyrelevant issues, such as human trafficking, housing access, home care affordability, education, elder abuse, reproductive freedom, gun safety, the rights of LGBTQ communities, climate change, and among others.

2026 plans

During the virtual media roundtable, when asked about his apparent plan to run for governorship in 2026, Bonta said right now his priorities are set on addressing critical concerns of the state.

“Quite a number of people are reaching out to me asking me to run, encouraging me to run, and for that, I am honored and flattered and humbled. I will make a decision about running for governor for 2026 but the time for that decision is not now. I am focused on my work and role as an attorney general now and at an appropriate time in the future, I’ll make a decision and it will be known,” he said.

Bonta, whose parents Cynthia and Warren are both advocates of social justice, was also asked by reporters if he has plans to meet Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who will be in California in November this year.

“I would like to spend time with President Marcos at some point [and] have a dialogue. I am open to a son not being the father and trying a different course and being different and I know that if you share a name as he does, there are assumptions and presumptions,” Bonta explained. The attorney general added, “I hope he’ll go in a completely different direction and free himself of the reputation of his father and be someone who can lift up the people of the Philippines who needed him so much, who are wrestling with so many challenges from poverty to inequality, to natural disasters and lack of necessary infrastructure, there are so much that can be done by a leader who loves their people and I hope he could be that leader.”

Bonta was also asked to comment on earlier reports about Marcos’ apparent plans to rewrite Philippine history.

“Part of being a good leader is building and working from the facts and the truth and not erasing the history. History is what it is — you can’t change it, you can’t go back and change it, but you can change where you go next,” he said.

“It is painful today when you erase the history of yesterday when people have been hurt, family members have been taken away, killed, tortured and then you say it didn’t happen, that is harmful today so that is not something any leader should be doing,” Bonta said. “Who knows when will I spend time with him, what our discussions will be but I hope I would have a productive discussion about how to move the Philippines forward and most importantly lift up every people of the Philippines.” (Donnabelle Gatdula-Arevalo/AJPress)