Monterey County labor leaders and politicians are sounding the alarm about a proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown to decrease health care funding they say would be disastrous for Natividad Medical Center.

At issue is $2 billion the state government now gives to counties to take care of poor residents for their health care needs.

As part of ongoing negotiations in Sacramento over how to implement the federal Affordable Care Act, Democrats are at odds with Brown over how to expand medical coverage for low-income people, and who will pay for it. There are two proposals: Have the state government just expand Medi-Cal and pay for it, or have the counties each expand their own program. The counties favor an expansion of Medi-Cal, according to news reports.

It is estimated the Affordable Care Act will result in direct coverage for about one million residents through expanded Medi-Cal coverage. Two to three million residents could also benefit from buying their own health care coverage and using federal tax credits promised to that effect.

With all this added coverage, Brown is reportedly saying counties won't need as much money for health care, so he wants to keep about $2 billion from that pot to administer the federal health care expansion.

But even with the expansion, about two to three million Californians will remain uninsured, labor leaders said at a news conference Monday outside Natividad Medical Center. The cut would be disastrous for Monterey County

"Right now, 1-in-4 people under 65 years old lack medical insurance," said Benjamin Franklin, Jr., president of Service Employees International Union Local 512, which represents most Natividad Medical Center workers. "When fully implemented, 23,000 people will receive coverage through medical expansion (of the Affordable Care Act). But for the thousands who remain uncovered, public hospitals are a lifeline."

If $2 billion is stripped from counties, these services will be in jeopardy, Franklin and other officials said.

"We're calling on state legislators to protect existing health care funding so they can continue protecting the indigent and uninsured" said Cesar Lara, executive director of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, which represents 64 unions on the Central Coast. Many of the uninsured are immigrant workers who got left out of the Affordable Care Act and won't be eligible even after the program is fully implemented, Lara said. That would be about 137,000 people in Monterey County who will still remain dependent on Natividad.

County owned Natividad provides health care to 60 percent of all the poor patients in Monterey County and 60 percent of all government- insured patients.

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County leaders worried about health care cuts