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Hundreds of health workers and others gathered on Anaheim Hill on Tuesday to shout out their rage over the expected cuts to Medicaid and what they would lose.
Local resident Cynthia Williams, who was among the protesters outside the Republican Party, protested outside Young Kim’s office, said he knows exactly what the government’s efficiency is, or where the ducks need to get their fats set.
“We’re going to cut out these billionaires. We’re going to cut out them,” Williams said. “Medical reductions affect people who need care, real life.”
As Medicaid is known in California, around 200 workers, their supporters, and Kim’s supporters and groups of members condemned medically for potential cuts and embraced President Trump and the head of Dozi, Tech Titan Elon Musk. The administration’s budget resolution proposes billions of dollars in tax and spending cuts. Trump has said he does not support the disconnection of Medicaid, which provides health services to low-income earners, but the Congressional Budget Office says it is impossible to achieve the promised savings without cutting such programs.
Around noon Tuesday, protesters dodged vehicles entering and leaving a business park just off the 91 Expressway. Five workers and residents spoke for about 20 minutes before the group marched in front of Kim’s office. So, about 30 protesters in medical gowns dying with signs with fake bloody handprints.
Fight for Our Health Coalition led the rally for the Health Coalition. This included representatives of the Healthcare Union SEIU-UHW and SEIU-2015, as well as many other healthcare and senior advocacy groups.
Kim’s president Curry Strock said lawmakers are grateful for the work of supporters on medical issues.
“She is committed to protecting and strengthening our health care system, including Medicaid services, which are important to our most vulnerable, and has worked across the aisles to expand access to care for her members,” Strock said in an email.
On February 26, Kim issued a statement on the House of Representatives’ continued solution to avoid government shutdowns. “We provide a fiscal spending framework and will not cut down certain programs.”
She added: “As this process moves forward, I will continue to make clear that budgets that do not protect important Medicaid services for the most vulnerable will provide tax relief for small businesses and that state and local tax (salt) deductions will not receive my vote.”
Like everyone else in Tuesday’s protest, the issue was personal to Josephine Rios.
Nursing assistant, 55, has worked at Kaiser Permanente Orange County Irvine Medical Center for seven years. She said she is protesting on behalf of Elijah, her seven-year-old grandson who has cerebral palsy.
Rios said his grandson relies on $5,000 worth of medication and treatment per month, including physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. He also receives injections that help prevent “out-of-control attacks.”
She worries that a cut to medical will make his medicine uncontrollable and his life miserable.
Here at Riverview Drive in Anaheim Hills, there is a path to Senator Young Kim’s office. Protesters warn Kim not to vote for medical cuts. #Protest #Medicine pic.twitter.com/qfgq79tq2p
– Andrew J. Campa (@campadrenews) March 18, 2025
“Leaving him would tie him up in the house,” Rios said. “Depriving him of his medicine is life-threatening.”
Rios said she felt betrayed by Kim and voted for her representative in November in a tough election that Orange County Conservatives won for her third year in a row.
“I was her strongest advocate and helped her take over,” Rios said. “I convinced my friends and family to vote for her.”
Rios added, “If she votes to cut medical, I will insist that she is just as strong as getting her to escape from the office.”
As Reuters recently reported, Republican lawmakers are divided into this issue. Some say they won’t cut the benefits, but they’ll overhaul Medicaid. Others believe that the country should be preserved as it faces the possibility of a recession.
Rios protester Williams said she is a recipient of Medi-Cal’s domestic support service and a full-time caregiver for Kailee, a sister and blind man who fights post-traumatic stress disorder.
“This program is a lifeline for my family,” she said. “I can’t afford these cuts.”
Williams and her family are 157,000 residents or one of 21% of the population in Rep. Kim’s medically dependent district, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.
Public advocacy groups assume that the cuts could affect 82,000 adults, or 55% of the district’s population.
Ian Kamus, a spokesman for OC Action for labor advocacy group, said Tuesday that he understands the need to trim waste and fraud, but he disagreed with what he saw as a Congressional method of support for Doge and Republicans.
“It’s good to make sure the government is efficient,” said Kamus, a resident of Aliso Viejo.
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