Colorectal crisis: Healthcare cuts jeopardize cancer screenings for Bay Area’s vulnerable

Nancy Villena sits in a cafe near her home in Santa Rosa, Calif., on July 25, 2026. Villena was able to complete a colonoscopy with the help of Operation Access, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that connects low-income, uninsured people in Northern California with donated outpatient surgeries and specialty care, including colonoscopies. (Josephine Tsai/Bay City News)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA., 8/20/2026 — Nancy Villena remembers that a “thousand things” flashed through her mind three years ago when the Petaluma Health Center called and said her stool test was abnormal.

After days of worry, including concern about her lack of health insurance, Villena met with a physician, who told her that her sample showed blood and she would need a colonoscopy. Villena was shocked — she had no symptoms. She had only gone to the health center because she finally had time to check on her health after arriving in Santa Rosa five years ago from Peru.