Defend Public Health Launches Campaign to Fight Medicaid Cuts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the House of Representatives pushes ahead with drastic cuts to Medicaid, Defend Public Health has launched a campaign to stop these cuts that could cost millions of Americans their health coverage and lead to many thousands of preventable deaths every year.

“Medicaid now covers one in five Americans, including nearly two thirds of nursing home residents and nearly half of all births in rural hospitals,” said Miranda Yaver, Ph.D., of DPH’s Health Systems and Health Insurance Committee and the author of a forthcoming book on U.S. health insurance. “To drastically cut Medicaid in order to fund more tax cuts for the super-rich is almost cartoonishly evil, but there’s a real possibility it could happen if voters don’t speak out now.”

DPH’s campaign focuses on mobilizing constituents in 35 Republican-held House districts considered both highly competitive and fairly Medicaid-reliant as well as half a dozen Senators who are up for reelection in 2026.

The Center for American Progress estimates that 190 rural hospitals in 34 states would be at immediate risk of closure if the proposed Medicaid cuts are implemented. These hospital closures would harm privately insured patients as well as those on Medicaid, threatening the health of communities across the nation. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the proposed Medicaid cuts would lead to 8.6 million fewer people being insured – a figure that rises to 13.7 million if, as expected, the enhanced subsidies put in place by the Biden administration are allowed to expire.

“Nearly everything now on the table regarding Medicaid would be destructive,” Yaver added. “Research clearly shows that work requirements cause people to lose coverage without increasing employment, and The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 92% of Medicaid beneficiaries already work or have an approved exemption. We also oppose the mindless cruelty of penalizing states that use their own funds to cover undocumented immigrants. States with such programs help keep whole communities healthier without costing the federal government one dime.

“While ultimately the U.S. must move away from our present, fragmented system of health coverage and toward a unified system that guarantees coverage for all, right now we need to keep the best parts of what we have from being destroyed. This is an emergency.”

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Defend Public Health is an all-volunteer network of public health researchers, healthcare workers, advocates and allies fighting to protect the health of all from the Trump administration's cruel attacks on proven, science-based public health policies. We believe that everyone has the right to what they need for a healthy life, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.
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