Washington, DC — Throughout April and early May, Unrig Our Economy, Social Security Works, Economic Security Project Action, and Americans across the country hosted nearly 40 grassroots events holding congressional Republicans accountable for ripping away Americans’ health care.
Congressional Republicans’ historic cuts to Medicaid and elimination of expanded health care tax credits have sent premiums skyrocketing and put an estimated 15 million Americans at risk of losing their health coverage – all to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. With Republicans pushing for even further cuts to Americans’ health care to fund an expensive war in Iran, advocates mobilized during Medicaid Awareness Month to highlight the real-world consequences of efforts to cut Medicaid and eliminate expanded health care tax credits that help working families afford coverage.
Advocates were joined by members of Congress, including Lauren Underwood (IL-14), Greg Casar (TX-35), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Brendan Boyle (PA-02), Joe Morelle (NY-25), and Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), who, alongside patients, caregivers, families, and advocates spoke out against proposals that would increase costs and strip health care from millions of Americans.
“Throughout this campaign, Americans made one thing clear: They’re sick and tired of congressional Republicans cutting our health care to fund tax breaks for the wealthy,” said Unrig Our Economy Campaign Director Leor Tal. “Americans across the country are struggling with Republican price hikes and threats to their coverage. Over the past 45 days, they’ve made their voices heard and held Republicans in Congress accountable for attacking their health coverage.”
“During the Stop Taking Our Health Care campaign, we traveled across the country,” said Social Security Works Executive Director Alex Lawson. “From California to Montana to New York and everywhere in between, we encountered Americans who are furious about losing their healthcare and about the threat of their local hospitals closing. The Republicans who decided to cut $1 trillion from our healthcare to hand out massive tax giveaways to the richest of the rich will face the consequences this November.”
“Our healthcare heist was designed to deliver one message: The wealthy are getting richer while the rest of us get sicker,” said Economic Security Project Action Senior Director of Campaigns Anna Aurilio. “Doctors in Los Angeles, retirees in Nebraska and law enforcement in Utah came together to speak to the devastating impact of the healthcare cuts, and show we can’t continue along this path. We have to reverse the cuts and ultimately deliver affordable healthcare for all.”
A full list of events can be found here.
Highlights from the campaign:
Theresa Luoni, an impacted CD7 resident and mom, talks at a “Stop Taking Our Health Care” rally on April 28, 2026, in Rahway across from Robert Wood Johnson about the $1 trillion in health care cuts passed into law by Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and his fellow Republicans.
Audrey Horn, a retired Nebraskan who relies on the ACA for her family’s care, said that while billionaires and big corporations are benefiting from tax breaks, “Republicans want to cut health care even more to pay for an unnecessary war that is already making life for everyone more expensive.”
The Stop Taking Our Health Care campaign has been holding rallies in several states opposing reductions in health care funding. Dingell says people across the country are feeling the effects of the cuts and expressing fears of what will happen next.
The Stop Taking our Health Care campaign is a collaboration of 20 national and state-based organizations, including Michigan Families for Fair Care.
Dingell was joined by fellow members of Congress, along with others who shared their health care stories.
Montana health care advocates are using the Affordable Care Act’s 16th anniversary to spotlight potential Medicaid cuts…Chet Phillips, a single dad of three kids on Medicaid, gets benefits through Montana’s Medicaid expansion. He wants lawmakers to protect those funds, especially after a recent health scare.”Without expanded Medicaid, I’d have had to worry about whether I could afford the care I needed to stay in this world and take care of the people who depend on me,” Phillips explained.
Medicaid cuts hurt people. Medicaid cuts hurt communities. And on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, Coloradans were busy explaining the pain. Some were in warm conference rooms at Denver Health with a United States senator, and some were in the cold rain outside a clinic that could suffer or even close because of the cuts.
[Junia] McGillen also has a sister with diabetes who suffered several strokes within the same year after rationing her insulin, resulting in a permanent disability.
“If my sister loses Medicaid, she will die,” she said. “She doesn’t have the option to not take insulin, she had those strokes because she was rationing insulin in the first place. My daughter will not have access to medication, my children will not have access to occupational therapy, which means in all likelihood, they will not be able to become self-sufficient.”
Local seniors and veterans gathered Friday to demand protections for their health care and retirement benefits…advocates expressed concern over proposed legislation saying that they would cut funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Western Montana rallies were held this weekend over health care concerns. One rally took place in Missoula in front of Saint Patrick’s Hospital. Another was scheduled in Polson from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in front of Saint Joseph Medical Clinic.
The organizer described worries about hospital services.
“Hard to imagine that all of the hospitals that we’ve gone to are either going to close or lose services. They’re not going to be able to give people the care that they need,” the organizer said.
Dr. Abraham, Karen Reside, and Monica Lazo discussed the need to fully fund local hospitals like MLK and the other 28 hospitals across California, and held Republicans accountable for causing widespread harm by gutting Medicaid.
“These cuts are devastating people’s access to health care … It’s expected that more than 330 hospitals are at risk of closure, including MLK Hospital right here in South Los Angeles.” said Dr. Abraham. “As Republicans continue to fund bailouts for billionaires, they continue to cut the care our patients and our communities so desperately need. Hospitals count on Medicaid to keep our doors open.”
In Madison Avenue Park, Rahway, participants on Tuesday, April 28, protested the more than $1 trillion in health care cuts passed into law by Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and his fellow Republicans. These cuts are devastating Medicaid, making Affordable Care Act premiums skyrocket and putting hundreds of hospitals, at least 12 in New Jersey, at risk of closing or reducing services. The cuts are hurting families in Rahway, where 16.5 percent of residents rely on Medicaid.
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About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.
About Social Security Works
Social Security Works is a non-profit fighting to protect and expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—because everyone deserves to live in dignity.
About Economic Security Project Action
Economic Security Project Action mobilizes resources and people behind ideas that build economic power for all Americans. This event was also part of ESPA’s Stop the Healthcare Heist Week of Action(May 4-10) which featured over 30 co-sponsoring organizations.