When that happens, Morgan said he expects the number of uninsured patients at Cottage — “self-paying” is the term of art — to increase by 300 to 500 percent. Right now, Morgan said, Cottage has about 4,000 to 5,000 self-paying patients. Right now, 25 percent of Cottage’s patients are insured by Medicaid, which provides government-funded insurance for working families and people on fixed incomes. In Santa Barbara County, Cottage, CenCal, the Neighborhood Clinics, Dignity Health, Lompoc Hospital, Sutter Health, the Indian Health Clinic, and the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health have convened an ongoing health care summit; the idea, in short, is to rearrange the deck chairs of the Titanic before the iceberg hits. In the meantime, prospective patients trying to better understand what options they have and what resources exist can call (805) 879-8963.