Category Archives: Medicaid

It’s our last chance to stop the disastrous “One Big Beautiful Bill”

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July 1, 2025

This is truly URGENT.

Senate Republicans just passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and it’s headed back to the House of Representatives for a final vote. Pick up the phone and make your voice heard in this critical window!

The OBBBA will lead to over 17 million Americans losing their health insurance and drive up the cost of care across the board; imperil hospitals and other health providers; reduce and eliminate food assistance for millions of people including children, veterans, and other vulnerable Americans; terminate millions of jobs; spike energy costs; and explode the national debt.

Lawmakers haven’t even read the final text, but the House is taking steps to quickly pass the bill. This is a critical moment to speak out and tell your representative to vote NO. The health and well-being of Americans and the programs they rely on are at stake. Now is THE time to speak out and tell your lawmakers to vote against this extreme and harmful legislation.

TAKE ACTION NOW!
Call (202) 224-3121 to be connected with your representative TODAY. 

Voting is scheduled for tomorrow, so don’t delay!

READ ON AND TAKE ACTION NOW!

URGENT: Call U.S. Senators NOW to vote NO on healthcare and food cuts

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June 30, 2025

This is URGENT.

Late Saturday night, Senate Republicans narrowly passed a motion to proceed, allowing debate to begin on their version of the devastating reconciliation budget bill. While they cleared this first procedural hurdle, a number of Republican senators continue to voice concerns about the health sections of the bill that make deep cuts to Medicaid and other social programs.

A Vote in the Senate is Expected Soon, and Health Care and Food Assistance are on the Line
In less than 24 hours, the Senate is expected to vote on the Republican budget reconciliation bill—and it’s even more extreme than the House bill. (To take action, please see the “Take Action NOW” section of this message further below.)

Here’s what’s at stake: 
The Senate proposal would slash funding for Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and SNAP (food assistance)—all to pay for tax cuts that disproportionately benefit high-income earners. 

Instead of moderating the House bill, the Senate doubled down—calling for deeper cuts and even more damage to programs for older adults, people with disabilities, caregivers, children, and working families. 
If passed, this legislation would: 

  • Strip health coverage from at least 17 million Americans. 
  • Cut millions of people off from critical food assistance.  
  • Cause more preventable deaths, more rural hospital closures, and more dangerous nursing homes. 
  • Raise health care costs for everyone by undermining system-wide affordability and stability. 

Programs that help people with Medicare are directly under attack: 

  • Nearly 1.4 million low-income people with Medicare could lose their Medicare Savings Program (MSP), making it harder to afford premiums and care. They would see lower Social Security checks as a result—costing them thousands of dollars each year. 
  • Millions would lose automatic help paying for prescriptions through the Part D Low Income Subsidy (Extra Help), assistance valued at $6,200 in 2025. 
  • For those who lose their MSP, Part B premiums and other out-of-pocket costs could consume up to one-third of their income, forcing impossible choices between health care, food, and housing. 

The Senate could vote as soon as today, with the House quickly following. Republican lawmakers are aiming for final passage by July 4. We need your voice NOW to stop this.

READ ON TO TAKE ACTION!

Take action to protect Medicaid, Marketplace, and Medicare!

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June 11, 2025

We are facing a national crisis in health care. House Republicans recently passed their budget bill – the cartoonishly named “One Big Beautiful Bill” – by just one vote along party lines. There were no public hearings, and House members were not afforded time to read the bill before they chose to vote on it. This bill would slash funding for all of our most vital health programs: Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplace, and yes – Medicare.
 
Roughly 15 million low- and moderate-income people would lose health coverage and become uninsured under the House Republicans’ sweeping and draconian health care agenda. Let’s be clear about one thing: there was no electoral “mandate” to cut healthcare programs. No one campaigned on getting rid of your health insurance or on driving up the costs of your health insurance so you end up paying more. So why, then, are these items in the Republican budget bill?
 
These cuts exist purely for the purpose of helping to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthy. In other words, this bill would create a massive transfer of wealth from low- and moderate-income people and families, to the wealthiest people and corporations. There is no health policy that can justify these changes.
 
It is vile, and it is deeply dangerous.
 
We know that the end result of these cuts to healthcare programs will be that people will live sicker, and they will die younger from preventable conditions. Health insurance is crucial for giving people access to preventive, primary, and specialty care. Early detection and treatment saves lives. Health insurance coverage also helps fund the health care system that we all depend upon. Reducing coverage and creating more uninsured will devastate our healthcare systems.
 
Senator Jodi Ernst (R-Iowa) spoke the quiet part out loud when she expressed callous disregard for the impacts of this bill. At a rare Town Hall meeting in Iowa, when confronted by frightened constituents who fear that the Medicaid cuts could be fatal, Senator Ernst made light of her constituents’ concerns by saying “we are all going to die.” This callous and glib response is the sort of answer one might expect from a psychopath, and indicates that she does not care about quality of life for those who will suffer. Shame on her. Unfortunately, Sen. Ernst is clearly not the only member of Congress who has this attitude. In fact, this attitude of cruelty and disinterest is reflected in the House Republicans’ budget bill and their priorities for funding cuts and tax breaks.
 
Below is information about some of the provisions of this dangerous budget bill, and what’s next in the process and how you can help.

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Guest Commentary about House Budget and Medicaid Cuts

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June 3, 2025

Dear friend,

In today’s The News-Gazette, you can see the Guest Commentary that I wrote about the House Republican’s Budget bill and the cuts to Medicaid and other health and food programs.

You can read my commentary below, or you can find it on The News-Gazette’s website here.

Don’t believe political spin about not-so-beautiful bill

House Republicans narrowly passed their budget bill – the cartoonishly named “One Big Beautiful Bill” – that would slash funding for Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These cuts would force around 15 million Americans off their health coverage, and raise healthcare costs for millions more, all in order to permanently fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations.

This budget bill was rushed through overnight, and while House Republicans admit this is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in a generation, they voted for it without getting a full analysis of the proposal or holding a single hearing on the impacts of the biggest cut to Medicaid ever. Even without a full accounting yet, we know enough to know that the consequences will be devastating – from millions more uninsured, to increased premiums and co-pays, and more bureaucratic barriers to get and stay on coverage, to reduced benefits and scaled back services resulting from cuts to the hospitals, clinics and other providers on which we all rely.

The Senate has millions of reasons to reject this approach to a budget bill. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote in a New York Times op-ed that slashing health care for the working poor “is both morally wrong and politically suicidal.”  He stated “Republicans need to open their eyes: Our voters support social insurance programs,” Hawley wrote. “More than that, our voters depend on those programs.” 

No one campaigned on the biggest reduction of health coverage in history, nor on massive Medicaid cuts, nor on cuts to the ACA or Medicare, nor on higher health premiums and co-payments, nor on cuts to the SNAP food assistance program — but that’s what House Republicans voted for in this budget.

This isn’t a political game — this is literally life and death for low-income working families, people with disabilities, pregnant women and their babies, children, veterans, and people who rely on rural hospitals across the country — all of whom will pay the price of this disastrous bill for generations, while the billionaires reap the benefits.

READ ON!

We are fighting for our lives!

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May 22, 2025

The situation is dire.
Early this morning, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act – the budget bill that includes a sweeping proposal that slashes billions of dollars from the Medicaid program and imposes dangerous new work requirements for Medicaid. If this is enacted, the bill will strip health insurance – and health care – away from millions of low-income people across the country.

Of course, the House barely passed this bill with enough votes, but all the YES votes were by Republicans. Let’s be very clear: this is one-sided, one party bill. There is no bipartisanship here.

CCHCC strongly condemns this legislation, which prioritizes tax breaks for billionaires and the largest corporations over the health and dignity of low-income communities. The deep cuts to Medicaid included in this bill will result in fewer people being covered, fewer healthcare services available and accessible, and a weaker healthcare system for everyone.

There is nothing beautiful about this bill. There is nothing beautiful about cruelty. There is nothing beautiful about the massive wealth transfer that is the primary purpose of this bill – but it’s a wealth transfer from the poorest to the wealthiest in our nation. There is absolutely no reason to make the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans permanent. How much more do they need? This is just the most malevolent form of greed and avarice at the expense of people’s health, and possibly their lives.

One of the most harmful provisions in this bill is a national mandate for Medicaid work requirements. Bureaucratic barriers like work requirements do NOT promote employment. In fact, 93% of all people on Medicaid who can work, are working! These requirements punish people who are already working in low-wage jobs, or who have disabilities, chronic conditions, or caregiving responsibilities. Caps to state Medicaid taxes and other changes to the program will result in slashing billions of more dollars to states and these will force states to make difficult decisions on who gets care and what care and services are available. Work requirements for Medicaid will costs all the states millions of dollars as they will have to set up the infrastructure to manage these requirements, and they will have to hire more people to do the work of monitoring Medicaid beneficiaries. What an absolutely ridiculous use of money!

There are other harmful provisions that undermine protections helping individuals obtain and retain Medicaid and Marketplace coverage. These provisions prevent states from spending their own funds to provide health insurance to immigrants, for example. Insuring as much of the population as possible improves a community’s and a state’s health overall, and decreases public health crises because health issues – including from infectious diseases – can be prevented, detected early, and treated early, limiting the spread of communicable diseases. So much for states’ rights.

READ ON!