Impossible choices between life and debt
Introduction
The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress want to slash Medicaid funding to offset their proposed tax cuts for corporations and billionaires. What would this mean for our communities and our economy? What could it mean for your family? In this Kansas City Star opinion piece, Community Change Co-President Dorian Warren and Community Catalyst Co-Interim President & CEO Brandon Wilson describe the scope of damage the proposed cuts would have:
Medicaid funds health care for nearly half of all births, two-thirds of nursing home residents and millions of people with disabilities. Yet, despite broad bipartisan support and positive views of the program among voters, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are pushing deep cuts to Medicaid to pay for $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires and corporations. […]
The real impact of these cuts would be on families who rely on Medicaid for essential, lifesaving care. Trump’s claims that his cuts would strengthen the economy are bogus. Sick people would call out of work, and hospitals that are often the largest employers of whole communities would shut down — and none of that bodes well for the local or national economy. Trump’s plan would drive up medical debt, force more people into emergency rooms and leave families with impossible choices between life and debt. These cuts would hit hardest where health care access is already fragile — rural communities, families with low incomes, Black people, Latino Americans, kids and people with disabilities. Millions of women and children rely on Medicaid for essential care, particularly in states where Medicaid expansion has helped keep rural hospitals open and reduced infant mortality. Across the country, people continue to organize to defend their health, refusing to let politicians dismantle a program that keeps communities stable.
Read more in Medicaid saves people in Missouri and Kansas. Trump and the GOP want to gut it.
Program Pulse
We’re Not Just Reacting, We’re Escalating
The resistance is growing and people are hungry to take action. On March 13, just before Congress left for recess, Community Change Action held a virtual rally that drew over 370 individuals to talk about what Republican-led threats to safety net programs would mean for themselves, their families, and their communities. As our panelists, Lorena Quiroz of Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity and Taylar Tremil of Workers Center for Racial Justice , spoke about how their communities are being affected and how they’re responding, participants took immediate actions, like emailing their representatives in Congress and signing up to join our Medicaid Union, a growing community of people who aim to shape the future of our healthcare system. We’ve also been hard at work with our partners, organizing town hall meetings in key states. For example, in Ohio ,131 people came to a town hall focused on Medicaid with Rep. Greg Landsman; in Michigan, over 100 people rallied outside Rep. John James’ office, joined by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, to defend home health care; and in Illinois, we co-led a 200-person town hall with Governor Pritzker to shine a light on the personal stories of people who rely on Medicaid. On April 8, Community Change Action is bringing over 130 people from 40 organizations across 25 states to Washington, D.C., for our National Lobby Day to advocate collectively with a unified demand before Congress to protect safety net programs, especially Medicaid and SNAP.
Building a Movement for Health Equity
As we fight to protect the (imperfect) health care safety net we have, we’re also developing a vision of the health care system we deserve . In early March, Community Change convened over 80 community organizers, health equity leaders, allies, and policy experts from across the country in Atlanta, GA, to build momentum for an anti-racist health justice movement. Over 2.5 days, participants connected, shared insights, and wrestled with questions like how to build power in the post-election environment, and how to use data and stories to advance an equitable health care system. The perspectives of people who most rely on programs like Medicaid are the starting point of transforming the health care system. Over the past year, Community Change has organized dozens of listening sessions, where we have brought hundreds of directly impacted people together to hear their perceptions of the system, discuss what works and doesn’t work, and surface their ideas about how to transform the system. We are also organizing participants who want to continue engaging as new grassroots leaders in a growing health equity movement.
Child Care Providers Deserve to Thrive
It’s no secret that child care in the United States is prohibitively expensive for most families. But it’s less widely known that most child care providers struggle to keep their centers open and too many early educators do not earn enough to make ends meet, a problem that is getting worse as federal funding for child care shrinks and states face growing budget gaps. In “Providers are professionals – and people”Changewire Fellow Val Weisler says, “If we recognize childcare as an essential part of society—one that requires skill, patience, and deep emotional labor—we begin to see caregivers as the professionals they are.” In partnership with the Early Educator Investment Collaborative, Community Change has launched a narrative project called “In Our Hands” to build public support for increasing compensation for child care providers and early educators through digital organizing and storytelling. Working with a cohort of 11 state child care partners and a group of our Childcare Changemakerleaders, we are field testing the messages that are most effective at building support for increased provider compensation — and equipping grassroots partners to strengthen their campaigns using digital communications strategies and base-building practices. Stay tuned for our video featuring Changemakers in New York, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, which we will release in April, as we build momentum toward our fourth national Day Without Child Care in May.
Before You Go
- Hillary Jorgensen, executive director of Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, and CCDC member Curt Wolff describe the impact Medicaid cuts would have on thousands of Coloradans in Potential federal Medicaid cuts have many on edge. Here’s one Coloradan’s story, on Colorado Public Radio.
- Marcela Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, spoke about ICE arrests in New Mexico communities in ICE ‘disappeared’ 48 New Mexico residents, attorneys say
- Danielle Atkinson, executive director of Mothering Justice, is featured in The Guardian: How Did Childcare in the US Become So Absurdly Expensive?
