As Republicans advance their tax scam through the Senate, recent headlines reveal growing concern over how the bill would devastate working families and the American health care system in order to fund massive tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. The Republican bill includes the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in our nation’s history and would rip health care coverage away from 16 million Americans. Seniors would be forced out of nursing homes, rural economies and households would suffer while hospitals shut down, and people battling cancer and serious illness would lose lifesaving care. Meanwhile, Republican leaders continue to push outright lies, or tell people who rely on Medicaid to “prove that [they] matter,” while dismissing constituents’ worries with callous indifference. At a time when too many are struggling to make ends meet, Senate Republicans must stand up and reject cuts that benefit billionaires on the backs of everyday Americans.
Forbes: AMA: Doctors And Patients Hurt By Republican ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
- “The American Medical Association says legislation wending its way through the Republican-controlled Congress would ‘take us backward’ as a country by cutting health benefits for low-income Americans.”
The Washington Post: Opinion: The GOP Bill Cutting Medicaid Could Mean More Than 100,000 Deaths
- “To take the most conservative of these three research teams’ work suggests this uptick in the uninsured population will translate to about 100,000 more avoidable deaths over the next decade. (That number is well over 140,000 if we include the impact of the expiring credits.)”
The Hill: What’s A Medicaid Cut? Senate GOP Tiptoes Around $800B Question
- “‘The people losing coverage aren’t people who aren’t working … but they’re actually people who should satisfy the work reporting or should qualify for an exemption, but they can’t navigate the complex systems for either reporting one’s hours for work or other activities,’ said Edwin Park, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. The legislation includes some exemptions, like for caregiving, but it doesn’t specify what would qualify or how beneficiaries would prove they qualify.”
Newsweek: Nurses Were Covid Heroes. Now They’re Being Squeezed By Medicaid Cuts
- “Patients can’t afford care, so they put it off, and they come into hospitals much sicker than they ever were. The looming Medicaid cuts will only make this worse. NYSNA nurses are trying to hold hospitals accountable and also do as much as possible on the policy front to expand access to care.”
Huffington Post: 5 Absurd Ways Republicans Are Defending Kicking People Off Medicaid
- Experts don’t matter. Prove you are worthy of health care. We’re all going to die anyway. Somehow, these are actual arguments GOP lawmakers and officials have been making as they try to gloss over the pain their bill would impose on poor people and families while handing big tax breaks to mostly rich people.
The Washington Post: Republicans Worry Medicaid Cuts Would Hurt Their Communities, Poll Finds
- “About 3 in 4 GOP Medicaid recipients were worried federal cuts to the program would hurt their ability to receive and pay for health care for themselves and their families, the poll found. Those concerns are not limited to people enrolled in the program. Nearly a third of all Republicans and 26 percent of MAGA Republicans had the same worries about their own access to health care if Medicaid is cut, the survey showed.”
Newsweek: Donald Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Suffers Blow
- “A new poll found that most people believe that President Donald Trump’s signature spending bill will primarily benefit wealthy individuals while harming middle-class and low-income individuals…60 percent of respondents believe the bill will benefit wealthy individuals, and 7 percent think it will hurt them.
The Dallas Morning News: The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Contains Some Ugly Medicaid Cuts
- “The bill will cut some $716 billion from Medicaid over 10 years (according to the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of an earlier, less punitive version), primarily by pushing an estimated 8 million people off of the program entirely. Several million more are projected to lose insurance due to cuts to the Affordable Care Act. Studies of Medicaid recipients, however, don’t find anywhere near 8 million people receiving benefits without working or qualifying for a legitimate exemption. The spending cuts, and losses in coverage, depend on raising the “time tax” paid by Medicaid recipients to the point where many will lose coverage they would normally qualify for.”
The New York Times: Opinion: When Arkansas Embraced Medicaid Work Requirements, Chaos Ensued
- “We saw many working people face similar challenges. Our clients ran the gamut of low-wage work: fast food workers, restaurant dishwashers and servers, construction workers, janitors, landscapers, motel cleaners, gas station clerks and nursing assistants. Many had disabilities, and their ability to continue working depended on getting treatment to manage chronic pain, asthma, injuries, cancer and mental health conditions. Some lost coverage simply because they couldn’t navigate the policy’s complicated requirements and labyrinthine reporting process. Others lost insurance because of the instability of low-wage work: Bosses cut their hours or laid them off without warning, limited public transit narrowed their options or they lived in struggling rural areas where jobs were hard to come by. When the state cut them off, their health worsened and many lost jobs, as well as the ability to work new ones.”
Des Moines Register: Opinion: I Lived The Gift Of Medicaid. It Made My Daughter’s 14 Months Possible.
- “The people most affected by these cuts will be single mothers doing their very best to raise their children. I know these families. They come to church for preschool and childcare before visiting the food pantry down the street. Our most vulnerable are worthy of care and Medicaid. They are not a bottom line on a budget spreadsheet aimed at funding tax breaks for the wealthy.”
MSNBC: Trump’s Interest In Medicare Cuts Is A Warning About Social Security Too
- “Not satisfied with massive reductions to Medicaid, GOP lawmakers — with the president’s support — now have Medicare in their sights, according to NBC News. That would mean cuts to two of the U.S. government’s three big entitlement programs, and Republicans’ talking points could just as easily be turned against the third entitlement: Social Security.”
The Guardian: Opinion: Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill Is Built On Falsehoods About Low-Income Families
- “Here’s the reality check: a majority of those receiving this aid who can work are already working. More than 70% of working-age people who receive nutrition benefits or Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income children and adults that covers one in five Americans, are already working, according to the Government Accountability Office. Those who aren’t working, research shows, are mostly ill, disabled, caring for a family member, or in school.”
Daily Kos: Americans See Big Pain In Trump’s ‘Beautiful Bill’
- “A new YouGov poll for CBS News finds that a plurality of Americans (47%) think the legislation, if enacted, will hurt middle-class people, and a majority (54%) thinks it will hurt poor people. Additionally, a plurality of 43% say the bill will hurt them and their family.”