Washington D.C — Today, an op-ed published in The Philadelphia Inquirer by Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, former Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, highlights how Republicans’ cuts to health care will not only harm Medicaid beneficiaries, but are set to jack up the cost of health care for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians and millions of Americans.
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Trump and the GOP are sticking Pennsylvanians with a massive healthcare bill
- Earlier this summer, Republicans passed a budget bill that released a wrecking ball on family budgets and the healthcare system Pennsylvanians rely on. When I served as the head of Medicare and Medicaid in the Biden administration, I heard firsthand from so many people how important Medicaid was for their family — people like the Brussards of Cumberland County, who know exactly what these cuts will mean.
- When Alex Brussard was just 12 years old, he endured treatment for an inoperable brain tumor. Though the tumor hasn’t returned, the ordeal left him with serious health challenges, including a brain hemorrhage. His mother, Paula, is his round-the-clock caregiver. Medicaid is their lifeline: It covers the treatments and equipment that make Alex’s life possible. Take it away, and their world collapses.
- This new budget law sends them — and families like them across Pennsylvania — a devastating message: You’re on your own.
- Not only have Republicans cut nearly a trillion dollars in federal Medicaid spending nationwide, but they’re also jacking up costs for hardworking low- and middle-class individuals and families who get their healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, called Pennie in Pennsylvania.
- This October, if Republicans in Congress don’t act — and very few of them have signaled that they want to — 20 million people in the U.S. and nearly 400,000 Pennsylvanians who get their healthcare coverage through the ACA marketplace will see their costs increase, placing even more of a strain on their budgets.
- We know that going without health coverage is incredibly dangerous to someone’s physical and financial well-being. It makes them less likely to seek out care out of fear that the costs will be more harmful to them than the lingering cough, the pain in their abdomen, or the swelling in their ankle.
- We need leaders to step up and protect our healthcare coverage, lower our costs, and actually solve the problems that matter to us.
To learn more about the campaign, visit UnrigOurEconomy.com or contact press@unrigoureconomy.com
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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.