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Demonstrators protest Medicaid cuts in Anaheim Hills, California on March 18, 2025.
(Photo by Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
'The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act': Emergency Proposal Aims to Fight Back Against Trump Attack on Medicaid
"If these cuts take effect without replacement funding, it won't just mean longer lines—it means people won't be able to get care when they need it," said one healthcare worker.
Oct 23, 2025
A coalition of frontline healthcare workers, unions, and economists launched an effort Thursday to build support for a proposed ballot measure in California that would impose a one-time tax on the state's billionaires to avert a looming crisis spurred by national Republicans' unprecedented Medicaid cuts.
The proposed ballot initiative, titled "The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act," would levy a single 5% tax on the wealth of California's roughly 200 billionaires to offset healthcare funding shortfalls caused by the roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts that US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans approved over the summer.
Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), one of the largest healthcare worker unions in the country, is spearheading the organizing push to get the proposal on the California ballot in November 2026. The union expects support for the measure to grow quickly in the coming weeks, and organizers said they hope the effort can serve as a "playbook" for other states working to mitigate the increasingly devastating impacts of the GOP assault on Medicaid.
Dave Regan, the president of SEIU-UHW, said during a press call Thursday that "it is a 100% certainty that we have the ability to put this on the ballot in 2026, and we intend to do so."
"We know what's going to happen if we don't do this," Regan added, alluding to the hospital closures, healthcare job cuts, and other havoc the Trump-GOP Medicaid cuts are already causing across the nation.
Supporters of the new initiative warn that if Medicaid funding cuts aren't offset with new revenue, California could lose around 145,000 healthcare jobs and see hospital closures across the state, a disaster for vulnerable families.
"We are already short-staffed, and every week more patients walk through our doors with fewer places to go," said Mayra Castanada, an ultrasound technologist in Lynwood, California. "If these cuts take effect without replacement funding, it won't just mean longer lines—it means people won't be able to get care when they need it."
"The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success."
Experts estimate that the one-time tax would raise $100 billion—a fraction of the staggering $2 trillion in combined wealth controlled by the 200 wealthiest Californians. Billionaires impacted by the tax would include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, two of the richest men in the world.
Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading expert on wealth inequality, voiced support for the initiative, saying that "the wealth of California billionaires has exploded in recent years while health and education in California are getting defunded by the Trump administration."
"The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success," said Saez.
Former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich also backed the initiative, saying the GOP Medicaid cuts have sparked a "manufactured crisis."
"These federal cuts didn't happen by accident—they were designed to shield billionaires from contributing while pushing the consequences onto patients and workers," said Reich. "A time-limited emergency tax on the ultra-wealthy is a practical way to keep the healthcare system functioning."
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A coalition of frontline healthcare workers, unions, and economists launched an effort Thursday to build support for a proposed ballot measure in California that would impose a one-time tax on the state's billionaires to avert a looming crisis spurred by national Republicans' unprecedented Medicaid cuts.
The proposed ballot initiative, titled "The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act," would levy a single 5% tax on the wealth of California's roughly 200 billionaires to offset healthcare funding shortfalls caused by the roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts that US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans approved over the summer.
Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), one of the largest healthcare worker unions in the country, is spearheading the organizing push to get the proposal on the California ballot in November 2026. The union expects support for the measure to grow quickly in the coming weeks, and organizers said they hope the effort can serve as a "playbook" for other states working to mitigate the increasingly devastating impacts of the GOP assault on Medicaid.
Dave Regan, the president of SEIU-UHW, said during a press call Thursday that "it is a 100% certainty that we have the ability to put this on the ballot in 2026, and we intend to do so."
"We know what's going to happen if we don't do this," Regan added, alluding to the hospital closures, healthcare job cuts, and other havoc the Trump-GOP Medicaid cuts are already causing across the nation.
Supporters of the new initiative warn that if Medicaid funding cuts aren't offset with new revenue, California could lose around 145,000 healthcare jobs and see hospital closures across the state, a disaster for vulnerable families.
"We are already short-staffed, and every week more patients walk through our doors with fewer places to go," said Mayra Castanada, an ultrasound technologist in Lynwood, California. "If these cuts take effect without replacement funding, it won't just mean longer lines—it means people won't be able to get care when they need it."
"The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success."
Experts estimate that the one-time tax would raise $100 billion—a fraction of the staggering $2 trillion in combined wealth controlled by the 200 wealthiest Californians. Billionaires impacted by the tax would include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, two of the richest men in the world.
Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading expert on wealth inequality, voiced support for the initiative, saying that "the wealth of California billionaires has exploded in recent years while health and education in California are getting defunded by the Trump administration."
"The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success," said Saez.
Former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich also backed the initiative, saying the GOP Medicaid cuts have sparked a "manufactured crisis."
"These federal cuts didn't happen by accident—they were designed to shield billionaires from contributing while pushing the consequences onto patients and workers," said Reich. "A time-limited emergency tax on the ultra-wealthy is a practical way to keep the healthcare system functioning."
A coalition of frontline healthcare workers, unions, and economists launched an effort Thursday to build support for a proposed ballot measure in California that would impose a one-time tax on the state's billionaires to avert a looming crisis spurred by national Republicans' unprecedented Medicaid cuts.
The proposed ballot initiative, titled "The 2026 Billionaire Tax Act," would levy a single 5% tax on the wealth of California's roughly 200 billionaires to offset healthcare funding shortfalls caused by the roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts that US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans approved over the summer.
Service Employees International Union–United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), one of the largest healthcare worker unions in the country, is spearheading the organizing push to get the proposal on the California ballot in November 2026. The union expects support for the measure to grow quickly in the coming weeks, and organizers said they hope the effort can serve as a "playbook" for other states working to mitigate the increasingly devastating impacts of the GOP assault on Medicaid.
Dave Regan, the president of SEIU-UHW, said during a press call Thursday that "it is a 100% certainty that we have the ability to put this on the ballot in 2026, and we intend to do so."
"We know what's going to happen if we don't do this," Regan added, alluding to the hospital closures, healthcare job cuts, and other havoc the Trump-GOP Medicaid cuts are already causing across the nation.
Supporters of the new initiative warn that if Medicaid funding cuts aren't offset with new revenue, California could lose around 145,000 healthcare jobs and see hospital closures across the state, a disaster for vulnerable families.
"We are already short-staffed, and every week more patients walk through our doors with fewer places to go," said Mayra Castanada, an ultrasound technologist in Lynwood, California. "If these cuts take effect without replacement funding, it won't just mean longer lines—it means people won't be able to get care when they need it."
"The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success."
Experts estimate that the one-time tax would raise $100 billion—a fraction of the staggering $2 trillion in combined wealth controlled by the 200 wealthiest Californians. Billionaires impacted by the tax would include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, two of the richest men in the world.
Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a leading expert on wealth inequality, voiced support for the initiative, saying that "the wealth of California billionaires has exploded in recent years while health and education in California are getting defunded by the Trump administration."
"The tax is small relative to the massive gains billionaires have made, yet large enough to preserve programs that are crucial for California's economy and its continued success," said Saez.
Former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich also backed the initiative, saying the GOP Medicaid cuts have sparked a "manufactured crisis."
"These federal cuts didn't happen by accident—they were designed to shield billionaires from contributing while pushing the consequences onto patients and workers," said Reich. "A time-limited emergency tax on the ultra-wealthy is a practical way to keep the healthcare system functioning."
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