U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra visited Sonoma County on Monday to tout President Joe Biden’s efforts to lower prescription drug costs and underscore the administration’s support for the Affordable Care Act and the nation’s vast network of federally funded health centers.
Becerra was joined at the Petaluma Health Center by Rep. Jared Huffman, Democrat of San Rafael, who moderated the visit. Both praised the Biden administration’s commitment to expanding federal health insurance and supporting community health infrastructure.
Becerra said Vice President Kamala Harris would be ready to continue those efforts if she is elected president in November.
“I know what Vice President Harris would do. I can’t guarantee you what would happen if the vice president didn’t win,” Becerra said during a brief press conference following the tour.
Becerra said that at the height of the pandemic, government-supported health centers like the Petaluma Health Center “were responsible for ensuring that approximately 22 to 23 million Americans had access to the COVID-19 vaccine.”
“(Community clinics) have also treated 31 million Americans over the past year or so at almost no or affordable cost, providing care they might not otherwise be able to get,” he added.
The visit was attended by members of the Petaluma clinic’s board of directors, as well as Sonoma County Supervisor Vice Chair Lynda Hopkins and County Executive Christina Rivera. Health center staff, including CEO Pedro Toledo and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nurit Licht, also took part in the tour.
The group followed Becerra and Huffman as clinical staff highlighted the most important services offered at the facility.
Licht described the facility’s maternity services, which included delivery services, obstetrics and gynecology, primary care physicians and certified midwives.
Becerra asked whether the facility would also perform deliveries – a sore spot in health care across the country as providers reduce or eliminate obstetric services, especially in suburban and rural areas.
Licht said the Petaluma-area mothers’ deliveries will take place at Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, which is owned and operated by the same hospital giant that closed the birthing center at Petaluma Valley Hospital in 2023.
Huffman intervened, pointing out that the closure of the maternity ward forced local mothers to travel to Santa Rosa to give birth.
“I know they’ve made life difficult for all of us with Petaluma Valley (Hospital),” Huffman said, referring to Providence, which purchased the hospital from the Petaluma Health Care District in 2020.
Responding to that criticism, Providence Northern California CEO Garry Olney said in a statement Tuesday that Providence and the county decided earlier this year that reopening Petaluma Valley Hospital’s birthing center was not feasible because of difficulties staffing local anesthesiologists and obstetricians.
“Based on the results of our community health needs analysis, we have committed to investing an additional $9.9 million in women’s health and mental health services in Sonoma County,” Olney said in the statement.
Providence said that as part of its investment agreement with the county, it provides transportation to and from Memorial Hospital and Petaluma Valley Hospital for births, as well as additional services for families in need of assistance.
During the tour, Becerra recognized the need for obstetric care.
“I know so many hospitals that would love to take OB,” Becerra said.
Licht responded that due to the need, the health center has been providing obstetric services continuously for years, from pregnancy through the first year after delivery.
As the group reached the psychiatric services area of the clinic, Ken Weinstock, the director of the clinic’s mental health department, emerged from a closed therapy room. When asked to describe the clinic’s psychiatric services, Weinstock respectfully excused himself and stated that he was in a session with a client.
“Good for him,” said Becerra, a former California attorney general and congressman who serves as the nation’s first Latino health and human services secretary. “He knows his priorities.”
The visit served to highlight Biden’s Prescription Drug Cost Reduction Act, part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The law significantly reduced the cost of drugs such as insulin, capping the monthly allowance at $35, and makes certain recommended preventive vaccinations free for adults with Medicare prescription coverage.
Huffman, a staunch Trump critic, also used the visit to compare election results to voters as Harris and the former president face off in the race for the White House. Under Trump, Huffman said, federal support for community health initiatives will falter.
“You’re not going to see any more state-of-the-art clinics like the one in Supervisor Hopkins’ district in Guerneville, and this one, and so many in my district,” Huffman said.
“Thanks to these investments, we have these spectacular community resources, and they would dry up,” he added.
On Tuesday, the Press Democrat reached out to the Trump team and asked for a response.
After the visit from Becerra and Huffman, Toledo, the CEO of the Petaluma Health Center, said that under President Trump, “there has actually been quite a bit of support for public health, both from Congress and the President.”
“We have not grown as quickly as we have under previous administrations, but we have continued to grow, even under President Trump’s administration,” he said.
Toledo added that at the beginning of the pandemic, when Trump was still in office, “unprecedented resources” flowed to community health centers to treat the uninsured.
Reach staff writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter at @pressreno.
