During a Senate Democratic press briefing on Tuesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) spoke about potential cuts to Medicaid within the Republicans' budget resolution.
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00:00We're here today to say it's time for the war on health care to stop.
00:10President Trump's cutting of NIH is causing great impacts to our health care system.
00:18President Trump's tariffs are causing higher costs on prescription drugs
00:23and the proposed budget that we still haven't seen the details on, $880 billion in Medicaid cuts,
00:32is going to cause a devastating impact to communities all across the United States.
00:38The fact that in my state, five to seven hospitals could close as a result of that
00:44and many other impacts on rural health care
00:48has caused a group of citizens to send a letter to my House colleagues
00:53urging them to oppose cuts to Medicaid rates,
00:58any adjustment to the federal medical assistance program,
01:05or direct Medicaid payment programs.
01:08Who are these people?
01:10Some of them are hospital CEOs, but guess who else they are?
01:16Republican state representatives, Republican county commissioners,
01:21city council people from the communities, they all know this is the wrong idea.
01:27And they are not interested in a sneak attack by the Republicans
01:31of saying that they can successfully cut $880 billion
01:36and not have an impact on our communities.
01:41They are going to have an impact, as I said, on closing hospitals,
01:44kicking people off of Medicaid as we've had a record expansion to hold down
01:50the cost of expensive insurance by covering them with Medicaid,
01:54and in addition, the impacts to long-term care.
01:58We know now that Medicaid is on such a short fuse
02:03of basically only having a very limited budget,
02:08and every penny counts.
02:09But 52% of that revenue comes from Medicaid.
02:14So if Medicaid is cut at any percentage, the impact to long-term care
02:20and kicking people off of their Medicaid for long-term care
02:23is going to have a devastating effect.
02:26And lastly, the same individuals who are involved with running our response
02:30to the fentanyl crisis know that if you cut Medicaid,
02:34you're also going to cut the recovery and treatment
02:37and also the housing that occurs in our jails
02:41of having the Medicaid resource to fight fentanyl,
02:45a scourge on our society.
02:46It's time for people to come clean in the House of Representatives
02:50and clarify that they, too, oppose Medicaid cuts.
02:54Thank you, Maria.