Over the past week, health care advocates and everyday Americans from coast to coast have been sounding the alarm over the GOP tax bill that will kick 16 million Americans off health care in order to hand out tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. The Republican spending bill makes the biggest cut to American health care in history, decimating Medicaid and dismantling the Affordable Care Act. People are yelling from the rooftops, warning about the devastation the GOP plan will cause to seniors, children, people with disabilities, cancer patients, small business owners, and more. Every single community will feel the effects of Donald Trump and Republicans’ big, ugly bill.
ALASKA
Anchorage Daily News: Opinion: A plea to Alaska’s congressional delegation for responsible economic policy
- Beyond these disturbing policy and market dislocations, the proposed budget bill imposes unconscionable safety net impairment to America’s most vulnerable population, including added work requirements and cuts to healthcare spending ($715 billion), SNAP/food stamps ($300 billion), and Medicare ($500 billion). Alaska’s 279,000 Medicaid recipients (including 109,000 children) would face about $3 billion in uncovered healthcare costs for which no safety net alternative exists.
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Letter to the Editor: Budget bill is Bad for our Health
- “If the budget bill becomes law, an overwhelming number of people will lose health care in Alaska. And many young people, like I once was, will be denied the opportunity to train and build a career for themselves. I’ve lived in Fairbanks since 2009, working and contributing to society and the economy. I have two kids who were raised in Alaska. If I had gotten pregnant or sick when I was young, then I would not have the fulfilling career and family that I have now.”
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Letter to the Editor: How is Nick Begich Working for Alaska?
- “It is impressive that many Republican members are regretting their vote, not realizing what was in the bill. Really? They vote for legislation, and they don’t even know what it contains? Even Marjorie Taylor Green regrets her vote. Apparently, not Nick Begich. It is impressive that Elon Musk calls the bill “a disgusting abomination,” even with the massive tax cuts he’d get. Me, I’m going to do everything I can to get Nick Begich out of office next year, and elect someone who will sincerely work for Alaskans. All Alaskans.”
Anchorage Daily News: ‘Nothing you can do except stand here’: Public assistance office keeps Alaskans waiting
- “Officials with the state Division of Public Assistance — which oversees Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and several other benefits programs in Alaska — say that to avoid a monthslong backlog, applicants should go to one of a handful of offices to meet with a case worker in person. In Anchorage, the state’s largest city, the division operates only one site.”
Anchorage Daily News: Opinion: Congress Needs to Act to Keep Health Insurance Affordable for Alaskans.
- “Others may go without coverage altogether. The result? Delayed care, worse health outcomes, and more financial stress, particularly for rural and underserved communities that already face barriers to care.”
Anchorage Daily News: Letter to the Editor: Paying a Fair Share.
- “Why does the Republican Big Beautiful Bill require ripping the heart out of social service needs like Medicare and Medicaid? The idea that government spending to support the needy is blowing up the deficit and the national debt is fantasy.”
Alaska Beacon: Alaska Senators Have a Chance to Protect Medicaid and Safeguard Vital Services for Alaska’s Youth.
- “Sullivan could be a deciding vote. Will he vote in lockstep to give Outside billionaires a tax cut financed by stealing Alaskans’ health coverage, or will he stand up for his adopted state? The stakes could not be higher.”
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Letter to the Editor: A Catastrophic Health Care Loss for Medicaid Recipients.
- “It’s pretty unanimous among the folks who follow such things that these cuts wouldn’t be a simple ‘right sizing,’ but a potential catastrophic health care loss for the nearly 300,000 Alaskans who use Medicaid.”
Ketchikan Daily News: Letter to the Editor: Call Senators.
- “Alaska’s Rep. Nick Begich voted to pass the One Great Big Beautiful Bill that will seriously impact Medicaid and the SNAP program that feeds our children and elders. I hope Alaska’s senators will do what they’ve said they will do to make changes to support Alaska’s Medicaid and SNAP food assistance.”
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Letter to the Editor: Nick Begich is not working for Alaskans
- “Nick Begich just voted to pass the “big beautiful bill act” — aka the “Let Them Eat Cake Act.“ Begich states this will reduce our deficit. Yet the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates it will add $3 trillion to our national debt; this on the backs of the poor and middle class. The rich will get tax breaks while SNAP food assistance and Medicaid will have drastic cuts, affecting the most vulnerable of us.”
Homer News: Sullivan Visits Homer During Weeklong Alaska Tour.
- “Regarding proposed cuts and additional requirements and restrictions to the Medicaid and SNAP programs in the House’s version of the Big Beautiful Bill, Sullivan said that the Senate is ‘still powering through the whole bill,’ and that what he will work on, as he has done previously, is ‘unique challenges’ that Alaska has and ‘try to address them.’”
IOWA
Des Moines Register: Opinion: I lived the gift of Medicaid. It made my daughter’s 14 months possible.
- I lived the gift of Medicaid, and I see the daily support Medicaid provides in our community. A deacon in my congregation is on Medicaid. He lives on a fixed income, so he walks to work and to church, and yet, he’s the first one there every Sunday morning. He makes the coffee. He prepares the communion trays. One Sunday, when a gentleman quietly weeped after the loss of his beloved wife of 72 years, this deacon gently placed his hand on his shoulder and held the communion tray until he was ready to be served. The patience and comfort our deacon showed that day is what Medicaid provides for Iowans. It doesn’t provide everything, just a gentle hand as we face the challenges of life.
TV Clips
WHO: Disability Advocates Call On Iowa Senators to Vote Against the “Big, Beautiful Bill”
WHBV: Disability Advocates Call On Iowa Senators to Vote Against the “Big, Beautiful Bill”
KCAU: Disability Rights Advocates Speak Out Against the “Big, Beautiful Bill”
KCCI: Disability Rights Advocates Share Concerns About the “Big, Beautiful Bill”
KCCI: Disability Rights Advocates Share Concerns About the “Big, Beautiful Bill”
MAINE
Portland Press Herald: Opinion: What Medicaid Cuts Could Do to Maine’s Hospitals — And Its People.
- “But they’re dead wrong about the effect cutting it would have. Because if this change goes through, it won’t just affect accounting ledgers. It will gut state budgets, slash Medicaid rolls and close more hospitals like Inland, especially in rural states like Maine, where access is already fragile.”
Portland Press Herald: Opinion: Trump’s Assault on Medicare Is Well Underway.
- “While insisting repeatedly that he ‘won’t harm Medicare or Social Security or touch Medicaid,’ President Trump’s draconian and chaotic program eliminations, personnel firings and policy reversals reveal quite the opposite: a full assault on Medicare and its beneficiaries is well underway.”
Central Maine: Letter to the Editor: Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Lung Cancer Patients.
- “As a lung cancer advocate from Maine whose family has been impacted by this terrible disease, I am deeply concerned about the massive cuts to Medicaid being proposed by Congress. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. Taking away coverage for millions of people will jeopardize our progress in defeating this disease.”
MINNESOTA
Red Lake Nation News: Healthcare Advocates Join Protect Our Care Minnesota As House Republicans Vote for the Largest Medicaid Cuts in History.
- “Minnesotans’ access to health care isn’t a bargaining chip, and they shouldn’t pay the price for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. If they get their way, Minnesotans who rely on Medicaid will be at risk of getting kicked off their coverage, rural hospitals will close, and Minnesota’s budget would be thrown into crisis. Minnesotans across the political spectrum want more access to health care, not less.”
Radio Clip
WCCO Radio: Chairperson of Hennepin County Board Speaks Out Against Proposed Federal Cuts to Medicaid
VIRGINIA
WRIC: Doctor Warns Hospitals Could Close if Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Becomes Law.
- “‘There’s an overlap between the population who uses and needs Medicaid and the population that has an increased rate of chronic diseases,’ Dr. Henry Rozycki, who recently retired after 37 years at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU, told 8News. Rozycki says the bill’s proposed changes to Medicaid could leave Virginians to pay the price.”
Virginian-Pilot: At Norfolk State University, Veterans Affairs Workers Decry Effects of Budget Cuts.
- “Democratic congressional leaders, including Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Newport News), on Tuesday morning heard accounts from local leaders and experts on the effects to veterans from Trump administration’s policies.”
10 Wavy News: ‘Don’t Deny Us What Abraham Lincoln Promised Us.’ Veterans Testify to Congress on Norfolk State Campus.
- “It means longer lines at VA medical centers and hospitals, and crowded waiting rooms,” said Robin Kelly. Del. Jackie Glass (D-Norfolk) served as a cryptographer aboard USS Nimitz and said access to health care is getting tougher, especially for those who are in crisis. “I see it my own family,” Glass said. “Trying to find a provider, specifically a mental health provider that takes TRICARE, it’s getting non-existent.”
WHRO: Staffing at the Chesapeake VA Highlighted in House Testimony at Norfolk State.
- “‘I go to see my doctor, who is now at the Chesapeake clinic. If he says, Susan, I want you to get a scan for this. Susan, you know, I want you to get that X-ray. I gotta go all the way up to Hampton. People are scared. They’re concerned and they’re pissed off, very honestly,’ Hippen said. Hippen described the clinic as a “ghost town.””
13NewsNow: House Democratic Committee Holds Hearing on Republican Attacks on Veterans at NSU.
- “‘It’s demoralizing. It is harmful. It is harmful to veterans. It is harmful to our communities. And it’s harmful to families of veterans.’ Del. Jackie Glass (D-Norfolk), a Navy veteran, also participated in the event. She described the proposed cuts as ‘a threat to the rightful compensation and care for vets.’ ‘This administration has dropped the ball,’ said Glass.”
ALX Now: Beyer, Herring, Ebbin Launch Speaking Tour to Combat Billions in Threatened Federal Health Care Cuts.
- “Beyer, Herring, and Ebbin will talk about how the legislation ‘will harm Northern Virginia working families, threaten our regional economy, and throw people off their health care,’ according to a release.”
WAVY: Rep. Don Scott to discuss threats to Medicaid in Norfolk.
- “The stop at the Slover Library is the final stop of a statewide tour called “Protect our Medicaid.” The goal of the tour, according to a release, is to raise awareness of the threat cuts to Medicaid could have on Virginia families.
TV Clips
WUSA: VA Leaders Kick Off Statewide Tour
FOX5: Rep. Beyer to Highlight Impact of Medicaid Cuts
WEST VIRGINIA
WBOY: Townhall With More Than 100 Attendees Criticizes Senator Capito and Representative Moore.
- “The grievances of the attendees of the town hall included cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, the executive branch overstepping its power, the abuse of the rights of immigrants and what attendees generally saw as the failure of Senator Capito and Representative Moore to speak out against these actions.”
West Virginia Watch: Opinion: As if Gutting Medicaid Wasn’t Enough…
- “West Virginia residents saw the most benefit from the increased ACA subsidies, as our state has the highest health care costs in the country. If allowed to expire at the end of the year, the 50,000 residents who get their health coverage through the Marketplace would see their monthly premiums increase by 140 percent.”
Charleston Gazette-Mail: Opinion: Don’t Take Food, Health Care Off the Table.
- “Let’s be clear: Voting for the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history is voting to take away health care and food from our most vulnerable neighbors — kids, seniors, people with disabilities and low-wage workers. These cuts are not abstract. They are personal. They are local. And they are real.”
Charleston Gazette-Mail: Opinion: A Big Beautiful Orwellian Bill.
- “But nothing funny nor beautiful can be found in a bill that adds trillions of dollars to the national debt, strips health care and food assistance away from millions of Americans, all to pay for an extension of tax cuts, the lion’s share of which benefit the wealthiest 1%.”
Charleston Gazette-Mail: Editorial: Medicaid Cuts and the Inequality of Death.
- “The bottom line is that, even in death, gaps in equality are a major problem in this country. Cutting vital programs will only make that worse. Ernst laughing it off is a bad sign for the future.”
Radio Clip
WCBC: Medicaid Cuts Could Worsen WV Maternal Mortality (Radio Interview with Ellen Allen)