ICYMI: Trump Medicaid Cuts Threaten Coverage for Millions of Michiganders

With Trump’s budget jeopardizing health care access, Michiganders came together to speak up about what these cuts would mean for our state

LANSING - In case you missed it, Governor Whitmer released the initial results of the report on the consequences of Trump’s Medicaid cuts in Michigan. Just yesterday, local Michiganders in Lansing told their stories to speak out against these cuts and demand better from Republican representatives like Tom Barrett, John James, and Bill Huizenga. 

With 20% of Michigan adults and 40% of Michigan children covered by Medicaid, Trump’s budget would be a catastrophe for the health care system and everyone in it. Despite what Republicans seem to think, children who need inhalers and seniors in nursing homes aren’t a waste — but that is exactly who will be impacted most by Trump’s heartless cuts to Medicaid. 

Unfortunately, Tom Barrett, John James, and Bill Huizenga seem to have already decided that Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires are more important than the tens of thousands of children and families in their districts who rely on Medicaid. Bottom line, Michiganders deserve better than three spineless congressmen who won’t try to protect them from these devastating cuts.

Read more from yesterday’s roundtable below: 

Michigan Advance: Michigan Democrats call on U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett to listen to constituent concerns on Medicaid cuts

• Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel and state Rep. Matt Longjohn (D-Portage) sat down with Tyjuan Thirdgill, the organizing manager for Reproductive Freedom for all, and Susan Anderson, an Okemos resident, to discuss the ways cuts to Medicaid would impact their families alongside Michigan residents.
• “Despite countless working Michiganders relying on Medicaid for healthcare and economic security, President Trump would rather support cuts to Medicaid and fund tax handouts to billionaires,” Hertel said… 
• When her husband first fell ill, they couldn’t afford to place him in a nursing home, so Anderson cared for him at home until he became more sick and was moved into a nursing home. Anderson and her husband could cover all but $2,000 of the monthly nursing home costs on their income.  
• “We were forced then to go to Medicaid. Thank God it was there. Medicaid covered the extra $2,000 and he got the care he needed,” Anderson said… 
• “Their mother, their father, their uncle, they will be affected. Their family will be affected, if these cuts take place because of the high cost of medical care today,” Anderson said, calling on Barrett to pay attention to his constituent’s concerns… 
• He said the cuts could also lead to the loss of rural health centers and federally qualified health centers which offer services to disadvantaged communities, with both types of facilities serving larger shares of individuals on Medicaid, making the program vital for covering the cost of patient care…