... McRae recently traveled to Sacramento, where she sat down with state Sen. Anna Caballero, who represents California’s 14th Senate District. The discussion included her work on the Senate Appropriations Committee, legislation to assist undocumented agricultural workers and a program the senator oversees that is inspiring young people to go into public service. She also explained the critical need to save hospitals in rural areas.

“I was made aware of the urgency of helping hospitals after the pandemic," said Caballero. "Many of them stopped providing non-essential services so that they could handle the rush of people that were very, very ill. And that cost them a lot in revenue, and many of them were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. And so, working in partnership with a group of senators, we created a fund. It was a Distressed Hospital Loan Fund to provide low interest loans to hospitals that were on the verge of bankruptcy. What I learned is we absolutely can’t afford to close hospitals. When that resource is gone, you end up losing the doctors that were serving the community, the nurses, all the technicians leave. They go somewhere else to find work. And once that starts happening, it’s very difficult to get medical services locally..."

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