House Republicans’ disastrous budget plan proposes the largest cuts to Medicaid in history in order to give a handout to the rich. In fact, cuts to Medicaid would harm Americans living in rural, Republican-represented communities the most.

In response to Republicans’ threat to unleash deep Medicaid cuts on their own constituents, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“Trump and House Republicans are championing the largest cuts to Medicaid in this nation’s history — threatening to rip away health care from millions of Americans, devastate rural hospitals, and trigger a health care crisis in communities across the country. Democrats will not sit by as Republicans destroy the lives of the very people they were elected to represent. Republicans can either vote against this bill, or lose their majorities.” 

Read more below:

CNN: ‘This is not a luxury’: Families in Trump states agonize over GOP’s proposed Medicaid cuts

By Jeff Zeleny

• Courtney Leader has been closely following the contentious tax-and-spending debate in Washington – not that she cares much for politics, but because she believes the proposed Medicaid cuts are a matter of life or death for her daughter.

• “This is not a luxury. I do not have my daughter enrolled on Medicaid so we can have fancy things,” Leader said. “I have my daughter enrolled in Medicaid so we can keep her alive and keep her at home, which I think is the best option for her.”

• “Without Medicaid,” Leader told her senator, “we would lose everything – our home, our vehicles and, eventually, our daughter.”

• A visit to Missouri, where at least one in five residents depend on Medicaid for health coverage, offered a snapshot of the potential fallout from the sprawling legislation the president and Republicans have branded as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

• “We are paying very close attention because we want to make sure that those Medicaid benefits are preserved so our patients can continue to access care that they need,” said Craig Thompson, CEO of Golden Valley Memorial. “For rural hospitals like ours, it’s ranchers, it’s farmers, it’s small business owners and it’s a whole lot of kids.”

• About four out of five patients admitted to the hospital, he said, depend on Medicaid, the health care program for lower-income Americans, or Medicare, the program for seniors. Severe cuts to Medicaid, he said, would unnecessarily send more people to the emergency room and have devastating effects on his and other rural hospitals across the state.

• Dr. Jennifer Blair, who grew up about 45 miles away in the small Missouri town of Peculiar, said she fears maternity wards at hospitals like Golden Valley are at risk if some of the deep Medicaid cuts are realized.

• “We are surrounded by several maternity care deserts, which is defined as a county that has no or very limited access to obstetric services for their patients,” Blair said. “If we were to lose that access to the birthing center here at Golden Valley, our patients would have to travel more than 60 miles.”