May 21, 2025
This is another urgent call to action because the budget bill that would drastically cut Medicaid and SNAP is advancing.
The House Rules Committee convened at 1 a.m. this morning to try to pass the Republican’s budget bill, which calls for the largest cuts to Medicaid in history in order to make tax cuts permanent for the ultra-wealthy.
Timeline: Trump has said that he wants this budget bill passed by Memorial Day, Monday, May 26. Right now, the House Rules Committee is trying to get this bill out of committee and then to the House floor for a vote. If that happens, the next step will be that the House and Senate have to reconcile their separate versions of the bill in order to pass it. In other words, these next few days are crucially important.
Please see immediately below for how to take action to help prevent cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, and then further below for information and resources.
How to take action: Crucial decisions are being made NOW, so lawmakers need to hear from you NOW.
You can CALL your member of Congress on this call-in line provided by SEIU: 866-426-2631. You can deliver a message saying something like: “Medicaid must be safeguarded, not gutted. No cuts to Medicaid! No work requirements, eligibility changes, or reduced funding. A cut is a cut and it will have devastating consequences.” And if you have a personal story or if you rely on Medicaid and/or SNAP, please feel free to say so during your call.
We at CCHCC have been asked a) is there a good reason to contact my legislator if they are a Democrat in Congress; and b) what else can I do to help the cause? In response to these questions, we advise the following:
a) Yes, It is still valuable to contact Democratic offices so those offices know how strongly their constituents feel about these issues and how important it is for them to push back and use the tools available to them to try to defeat the bill. Especially when the bill leads are planning ways to further discourage Democrats from being involved, like scheduling meetings at 1 a.m., communicating that this is worth showing up to fight is helpful.
b) Contact your friends and families in districts with Republican representatives and explain why these issues are important to them, and urge their friends and family to call.
c) Use media platforms that will help get the word out beyond your district about how the bill would hurt working and middle-class Americans and issues they care about, and especially about any real, personal impact — real, personal stories are incredibly powerful. This could include using social media and writing letters to the editor or op-ed for newspapers.
d) Sign the petition by Community Catalyst to protect Medicaid!
Please share this information with others so that they can join you in taking action!
Now, some information and resources, for those of you who want to dig deeper into this issue.
The dangers of the House budget bill: According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill would result in up to 13.7 million Americans losing their healthcare coverage, while adding $3.8 trillion to the federal budget deficit. The sole purpose of the drastic budget cuts in this bill is to permanently fund tax cuts for the ultra-rich.
A New York Times article this morning states that by 2027, as a result of this bill, “…the bottom 10 percent would lose the equivalent of two percent of their income and resources largely because of reduced benefits from Medicaid, SNAP, etc., while the tax cuts would provide the top 10 percent with a four percent increase to their income, the budget office estimated.”
The Republican budget bill will, in part, use work requirements for Medicaid eligibility as one of the mechanisms for cutting Medicaid spending. Families USA put together a fact sheet that explains why Medicaid work requirements are a bad idea, and a failed policy experiment. You can read that fact sheet here.
And many of the Medicaid cuts will also affect MEDICARE beneficiaries. The National Health Law Program has issued a blog post that explains how Medicaid cuts will affect MEDICARE beneficiaries. You can read that post here.
We can fight this! But it will take all of us to do so. Each person who takes action as an individual is part of a much larger collective action happening across our country. In other words, your individual action counts because it is part of a larger nation-wide effort!
Thank you for your activism!
Sincerely,
Champaign County Health Care Consumers