Medicaid

Trump and Republicans’ So-Called ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Could Cause 338 Rural Hospitals to Shut Down, Taking Care From Small Towns and Rural Communities While Cutting Jobs and Hurting Economies

View the New Ad and Report.

Washington, D.C. – Protect Our Care released a new report and launched a new digital ad raising the alarm on the devastating impact Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill could have on hospitals in small towns and rural communities across the country. This Republican bill could cause 338 hospitals to close their doors or scale back services. People across the country, including seniors, people with disabilities, expectant mothers, and cancer patients, would have to travel further to get care and experience lengthier wait times in emergency rooms. Hospital employees would lose their jobs and local economies would suffer. The ad and report come as House Democrats hold Save Our Hospitals Week and Republicans continue to advance their Big, Ugly Bill through the Senate. 

This is part of Protect Our Care’s 10-million-dollar “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign and follows ads holding key House and Senate Republicans’ feet to the fire as they continue to push this devastating bill forward. It would make the largest cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in history, ripping health care coverage away from 16 million Americans, in order to fund massive tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals and corporations. 

“This bill is nothing short of an attack on the American people,” said Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse. “Not only would it rip health care away from millions, it would gut hospitals and vital services, leaving rural communities to suffer all to fund tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. But Republicans are hell bent on forcing these draconian health care cuts forward anyway. No one should lose access to life-saving care and coverage just so the wealthiest people and corporations can pay less in taxes.”

Sample Ad Script: 

Narrator: When you’re in trouble, you want a hospital. A place that’s close, that’s ready, that’s there when you need it. 

But Donald Trump’s so-called ‘big beautiful bill’ would enact the largest cut to Medicaid in history, slashing over $400 billion from our hospitals and putting care for everyone at risk. 

The ambulance may come, but it won’t matter if they have nowhere to take you. Longer drives, fewer doctors, more lives in danger. 

Tell Republicans: “Don’t let Trump gut our hospitals to pay for tax cuts for the rich.”

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TUESDAY JUNE 17, 2025 AT 3 PM***

House Democrats Launch Save Our Hospitals Week as Senate Republicans Make Their Tax Bill Even Worse, Threatening Care, Hospital Closures, Jobs, and Local Economies

Washington, D.C. — On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at 3 pm ET, U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06), Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, will join former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Meena Bewtra MD, PhD, MPH with Doctors for America, and Protect Our Care to kick off Save Our Hospitals Week as Senate Republicans double down on the largest health care cuts in history. This GOP bill will take health care coverage away from 16 million Americans by slashing Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all so Republicans can fund tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations. Not only will hardworking families lose coverage, but 338 rural hospitals across the country will be at risk of shutting down. As a result, Americans across the country would have to travel further for care and face longer wait times. If Republicans succeed, they’ll strip care and vital services from small towns and rural communities across the country, force job cuts, cripple state economies, and throw our health care system into chaos. In light of Republican attacks on hospitals and health care, Protect Our Care released a new ad and report on the damage Republicans’ tax bill would do to hospitals and vital services around the country.

PRESS CALL:

WHO:
U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06)
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Meena Bewtra, MD, PhD, MPH, Doctors for America
Leslie Dach, Chair, Protect Our Care

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHERE: Register for the Event Here.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at 3 PM EST

Donald Trump has been sabotaging lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) health care since day one. Right now, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are pushing for the largest cuts to health care in history to decimate Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. As a result, 16 million Americans, including countless members of the LGBTQI+ community, will lose access to life-saving care. 

But the threats to LGBTQI+ health care don’t end with the GOP tax bill. Republicans are escalating a series of attacks, from eradicating protections based on sexual and gender identity to cutting lifesaving research into cancer and diseases that primarily affect LGBTQI+ individuals. Meanwhile, Republicans in 26 states are enacting laws or policies to prohibit gender affirming care for trans youth, and 10 states continue to block Medicaid expansion, while the program provides critical health care access for LGBTQI+ Americans. The loss of critical life-saving coverage and services would be catastrophic for the LGBTQI+ community. Whether it’s eliminating access to preventive medicine, no-cost screenings, or banning gender-affirming care, Republicans’ war on health care is only getting more extreme.

Trump and His Admin Are Eliminating Protections and Advancements For the LGBTQI+ Community

Trump Reversed Several Biden Executive Orders That Protected LGBTQI+ Individuals. On Trump’s first day in office, he rescinded executive orders signed by President Biden, undoing several actions aimed at protecting members of the LGBTQI+ community. These executive orders include executive orders aimed at preventing and fighting against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, as well as advancing equity for LGBTQI+ individuals and establishing the White House Gender Policy Council. Getting rid of these orders removes protections for those in the LGBTQI+ community, as well as ending orders to improve public health and data collection for LGBTQI+ individuals and ending nondiscrimination protections, especially in health care.

Trump Admin Has Cut Over $800 Million from LGBTQI+ Health Research. The Trump Administration has cut over $800 million from research budgets looking into health concerns that primarily affect those in the LGBTQI+ community, including certain cancers, viruses, and sexually transmitted infections. As of early May, out of 669 research grants that the National Institute of Health has canceled, nearly half were related to LGBTQI+ health. In letters to programs that received these research grants, the NIH has stated that these cuts “no longer effectuates agency priorities” and in the cases that research based on gender identity was being conducted, they said that the research led to “unscientific” results that ignored “biological realities.” These cuts are compromising decades of work to put an end to the HIV/AIDs epidemic and are leaving health issues that disproportionately affect the LGBTQI+ community unchecked.

Republicans Are Pulling Medications They Don’t Like From The Market – Setting a Dangerous Precedent for LGBTQI+ Care

A Trump-Appointed Judge Is Working To Curb Access To Safe, Affordable Abortions. In April 2023, another Trump-appointed judge ruled against the FDA in a case seeking to remove a popular medication used to induce abortion from the market. Medication abortions are the most common, least expensive, and most accessible method for people to terminate pregnancy and the ruling impacts communities that already have difficulty accessing these key services. 

Republicans Want to Pull Medications They Don’t Like Off The Shelves. The case could set a dangerous precedent for any federal judge to pull controversial medications off the market, regardless of the science behind approval decisions or the bureaucratic steps taken to prove safety and efficacy. As Lambda Legal has pointed out, “The trial court’s approach just as easily (or perhaps more easily) could be aimed at HIV-related medications and puberty blockers and hormone treatments, as well as medications for many other health conditions that are specially relevant for our communities.”

Republicans Are Taking Away No-Cost Preventive Care From LGBTQI+ People and Communities of Color

Republicans Are Curbing Access To No-Cost Preventive Services, Disproportionately Impacting LGBTQI+ People and Communities of Color. This month, the Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in Kennedy et al. v. Braidwood (formerly Braidwood v. Becerra), a case in which far-right extremists have urged the Court to invalidate a key portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires insurers to cover lifesaving preventive services for free. If the right-wing plaintiffs get their way, it will once again put Americans at the mercy of insurance companies and employers, allowing them to charge high out-of-pocket costs for critical preventive care and refuse to cover certain benefits entirely. In March 2023, a Trump-appointed judge decided against the federal government in Braidwood v. Becerra and struck down no-cost coverage of lung and breast cancer screenings, Hepatitis C screenings, HIV screenings, and PrEP medication. These changes have a disproportionate impact on historically marginalized populations like LGBTQI+ people and communities of color — curbing no-cost access to preventive services would create barriers to seeking needed care and exacerbate existing health disparities. Even if the Court rules against the plaintiffs, the Trump administration could be granted the ability to overturn health experts’ evidence-based recommendations regarding which preventive services insurers must cover, leaving existing coverage at risk.

Republicans Are Targeting PrEP, A Key Prevention Strategy For HIV. The 2023 ruling struck down a portion of the ACA guaranteeing access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug proven to substantially reduce the risk of contracting HIV. PrEP has been associated with a significant decrease in the number of new HIV diagnoses. PrEP is shown to lower the risk of infection from sex by more than 90 percent (more than 99 percent effective) and is widely viewed as a key prevention strategy for ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S. Thanks to ACA protections, the percentage of PrEP users has jumped from 3 percent of eligible patients in 2015 to 30 percent of eligible patients prescribed in 2021. The federal government’s 2022-2025 strategy to combat HIV recognized gay and bisexual men, particularly Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American men, Black women, and trans women as priority populations. Rural populations, especially gay and bisexual Native American men and Two-Spirit populations, have greater difficulty accessing preventive care for HIV.

• Ending ACA PrEP Protections Disproportionately Harms Black and Hispanic/Latino Gay and Bisexual Men. While 66 percent of eligible white people in America are prescribed PrEP, just 16 percent of eligible Hispanic/Latino Americans and 9 percent of eligible Black Americans are prescribed the lifesaving drug. Academic experts have concluded that Braidwood will disproportionately impact racial and ethnic sociodemographic groups at particularly high risk for HIV infection: “Even in our ‘best-case’ scenario, the predominant burden of new restrictions on access to PrEP will likely fall on Black and Latino gay and bisexual men, as well as transgender women, who already face significant barriers to HIV prevention and care.”

Ending ACA Cost-Sharing Protections Could Increase HIV Transmission By At Least 17 Percent In The First Year Alone. According to academic experts, ending the prohibition of cost sharing for PrEP will increase HIV transmission among men who have sex with men by at least 17 percent in the first year alone. Researchers at Yale have already determined that the Braidwood ruling could see coverage for PrEP drop from 28 percent to only 10 percent, mainly due to the fact that 80 percent of PrEP users are on commercial plans that would now have the ability to refuse to cover PrEP. A recent study found that PrEP medication costs nearly $350 for a 30-day supply on average. Outside of the cost of obtaining medication, PrEP users incur additional required charges as part of the care regimen like clinical visits and lab costs that can add up to thousands of dollars annually. 

Republicans Are Pushing An Anti-Trans Agenda

10 Republican-Led States Continue To Block Medicaid Expansion, Which Serves Millions Of LGBTQI+ Patients. Republicans in 10 states continue to block Medicaid expansion, while the program provides critical health care access for an estimated 1.2 million LGBTQI+ adults, disproportionately trans and non-binary Black, Hispanic/Latino, Pacific Islander, and Native American people. LGB individuals are more likely to qualify for Medicaid based on income, and Medicaid covers about 21 percent of trans and non-binary people in the U.S.

Trump Signed an Executive Order Reinforcing the Gender Binary and Restricting Health Care for Trans Teens. Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that redefined sex as a binary and removed acknowledgement of gender identity. This order has led to community health centers and HIV clinics’ funding being stripped away due to their programs for transgender individuals. Distribution of transgender specific health care messaging has also been eliminated, which will likely lead to a higher prevalence of disease, poor mental health outcomes, and decreased care. A few days later, Trump signed another executive order aimed at broadly banning health care for transgender youth. The order bans medical care for transgender youth who are dependents of federal employees and prohibits federal funding for any health care organization that provides lifesaving gender affirming care for trans people under 19 years old. 

CMS Wants to Eliminate Gender Affirming Care from ACA Benefits. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has also proposed a rule to eliminate coverage of gender affirming care as an essential health benefit in ACA plans starting in 2026. This means costs for gender affirming care would not be required to count towards out-of-pocket maximums, deductibles, or lifetime limits, effectively putting this type of care out of reach for many Americans.

Republicans Are Waging War On Trans People and Their Health Care. Across the country, Republicans have escalated their war on trans people and health. 26 states have enacted laws or policies prohibiting gender affirming care in some way. As of August 2024, 40 percent of trans youth, aged 13 to 17 years old, live in these 26 states. Anti-trans laws contribute to negative health impacts, including an increased risk of suicidality and substance use among trans and non-binary youths. Equitable access to health care services has always been a challenge for LGBTQI+ people. A 2018 survey found that 75 percent of people seeking gender-identity-based care have had negative experiences during physician visits. The fight to get insurers to cover basic care for trans patients—let alone gender-affirming care—has been a grueling, decades-long process, even with ACA protections and federal and state-level enforcement. New bans threaten to undo decades of work to provide trans people with access to affordable, gender-affirming care.

Millions of Americans count on Medicaid for health care, but Republicans want to make it harder than ever for working families to get the health care they need, all so they can hand out tax breaks to wealthy donors and corporations. Republicans plan to generate over $330 billion in funding for tax breaks for the rich by trapping workers in a maze of red tape designed to kick them off the rolls. At a time when people are struggling to afford the cost of living and facing economic uncertainty, Republicans are trying to rip away health coverage from the people who need it most – from school bus drivers to home care workers to grocery store clerks. Aside from children, most people who have Medicaid either work in a job that doesn’t provide health care, have disabilities, or are seniors in nursing homes. We’ve seen work requirements fail tremendously in every state that has attempted them from Arkansas to Georgia: throwing thousands of working people off the rolls, costing more to cover fewer people, and increasing health care costs for everyone. Americans deserve better than ineffective policies designed to kick millions off their health care to benefit the ultrawealthy.

CBPP: Work Requirements Will Harm Low-Paid Workers.

• “Many workers with unstable or seasonal jobs will lose coverage. Many Medicaid enrollees work in industries in which both employment and hours are volatile, sometimes on a week-to-week basis. The industries that employ the most adult working-age Medicaid enrollees include education, health and social services (e.g., hospitals, child care facilities, and schools), retail, and food service. CBPP analysis of 2019 survey data finds that among those [on Medicaid] who worked, 43 percent would have failed to meet an 80-hour work requirement in at least one month. Even among those who worked at least 1,000 hours over the course of the year — averaging about 80 hours per month — 25 percent would have failed the requirement in at least one month.”
• “Work requirements are burdensome and counterproductive. Ninety percent of adult Medicaid enrollees are already working or would be exempt from a work requirement, making it unnecessary to add red tape through a one-size-fits-all requirement.”
• “Medicaid work requirements do not increase employment, and the Congressional Budget Office found that a previous House proposal in 2023 would likely have led to coverage loss with “no change in employment or hours worked.”
• “Workers will have a hard time staying healthy, maintaining employment. Medicaid allows people to better manage their conditions and thus maintain employment, and coverage losses or interruptions will especially harm those with serious health needs. Among workers who gained coverage through Medicaid expansion in Ohio and Michigan, most reported that gaining coverage made them better at their jobs or made it easier for them to keep working.”

Brookings: Congress Is Debating Stricter SNAP And Medicaid Work Requirements – But Research Shows They Don’t Work.

• “Work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP are built on the assumption that recipients avoid work and need bureaucratic pressure—or a “stick”—to enter the workforce. However, research shows otherwise. Most SNAP and Medicaid recipients who can work are already working. Research consistently shows that additional work requirements do little than create administrative burdens and reporting systems that may push eligible participants out of the safety net.”
• “In the 2018 [Arkansas] experiment, 18,000 low-income individuals lost coverage in under a year—not necessarily because they failed to meet the 80-hour work requirement, but because they struggled with the complex reporting system. A subsequent study in Health Affairs found no significant increase in employment, but those who lost coverage faced severe consequences: 50% reported serious medical debt, 56% delayed care due to costs, and 64% postponed taking prescribed medications.”

Georgetown CCF: How Do We Know Congress’ Work Requirements In Medicaid Will Fail? They Already Have. 

• “Georgia in 2023 implemented a partial Medicaid expansion with a work requirement. Although hundreds of thousands of Georgians would otherwise be eligible for health insurance in the new expansion, only 7,000 are enrolled because of the work requirement. The state has a roughly 3% success rate and hundreds of thousands of Georgians haven’t been able to get insured. (The only winners under Georgia’s model have been consultants, as my colleague Joan Alker has explained.) The Georgia failure is so abysmal that this year the state conceded the program isn’t working, and has filed a new amendment in a desperate attempt to fix the unfixable.”

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Work Requirements Threaten Health And Increase Costs.

• “Decades of research show that work requirements do not move people off assistance and into self-sufficiency; instead they increase costs to states and taxpayers, harm health, keep eligible people from obtaining needed assistance, terminate health insurance coverage and other benefits, and drive people and families—already struggling to make ends meet—deeper into poverty.”
• “Beyond harming individuals, work requirements are costly and inefficient. Tracking and enforcing work requirements requires states to invest millions in administrative oversight, diverting funds from direct assistance. Arkansas’ Medicaid work requirement cost $26.1 million to administer but failed to increase employment. And Georgia’s Medicaid program with work requirements cost more than $40 million in its first year, with nearly 80% of funds going to administrative and consulting fees rather than healthcare.”

Commonwealth Fund: States Could See A Loss of 322,000 to 449,000 Jobs [As A Result of Work Requirements].

• “Between 4.6 million and 5.2 million adults could lose Medicaid in 2026 if work requirements are imposed, cutting federal funding to states by $33 billion to $46 billion in the first year and $362 billion to $504 billion over a decade. States overall could see a $43 billion to $59 billion reduction in economic activity in 2026; a loss of 322,000 to 449,000 jobs; and a $3.2 billion to $4.4 billion reduction in state and local tax revenues.”

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)