Cynthia Williams is furious with U.S. House Republicans willing to slash Medicaid, the government-run insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.
The 61-year-old Anaheim resident cares for her adult daughter, who is blind, and for her sister, a military veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions. Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, pays Williams to care for them, and she relies on that income, just as her sister and daughter depend on her.
“Let’s be real. We shouldn’t have to be here tonight,” Williams told a raucous standing-room crowd of over 200 people at a recent town hall. “We should be home, spending time with our loved ones and our families, but we’re here. And we’re here to fight, because when politicians try to take away our health care, we don’t have the option to sit back and let it happen.”
The House last week approved a Republican budget plan that could shrink Medicaid spending by $880 billion over 10 years, only partially paying for an extension of expiring tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s first term, plus some new ones he has promised, totaling as much as $4.5 trillion.
A spending cut of that magnitude would significantly impact California, where nearly 15 million people—more than a third of the population—are on Medi-Cal. Over 60% of Medi-Cal’s $161 billion budget comes from Washington.
Williams was among about a dozen providers, patient advocates, disabled people, and family members who stood up one after the other to tell their stories. Rep. Young Kim, a Republican whose district includes this relatively affluent Orange County city, declined an invitation for her or a staff member to attend. But her constituents delivered their message loud and clear to her and the other Republicans in Congress: Hands off Medicaid.
Josephine Rios, a certified nursing assistant at a Kaiser Permanente surgical center in Irvine, said her 7-year-old grandson, Elijah, has received indispensable treatments through Medi-Cal, including a $5,000-a-month medication that controls his seizures, which can be life-threatening. Elijah, who has cerebral palsy, is among the more than 50% of California children covered by Medi-Cal.
“To cut Medicaid, Medi-Cal, that’s like saying he can’t live. He can’t thrive. He’s going to lie in bed and do nothing,” Rios said. “Who are they to judge who lives and who doesn’t?”
According to a new survey by the California Health Care Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago, two-thirds of Californians across party lines oppose cuts to Medi-Cal.
The town hall here was one of three organized late last month by “Fight for Our Health,” a coalition of health advocacy groups and unions, to target Republican House members whose California districts are considered politically competitive. Rep. David Valadao represents part of Bakersfield, one of the two locations, and Rep. Ken Calvert calls Corona, the other location, home. Multiple other town halls and protests have emerged nationwide in recent weeks.
The coalition has reprised a campaign — part of a broader national movement — that fought against the GOP’s unsuccessful 2017 effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Many attribute the Republicans’ loss of House control in the 2018 midterm elections to their stance on health care. Valadao was among the GOP members who lost their seats in 2018, though he regained his seat two years later.
Still, he voted for the House budget proposal last week even though about two-thirds of the population in his district is on Medicaid — the highest in the state — and even though he is one of eight GOP House members who sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson warning about the “serious consequences” of deep cuts to Medicaid. Valadao’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Calvert, who’s been in the House for 32 years and eked out reelection last November, also voted for the budget, as did Kim. All nine GOP members of California’s congressional delegation supported it, as did all House Republicans except one.
Critics of the budget plan say it favors the rich at the expense of society’s most vulnerable — an argument that speakers vigorously repeated at the Tustin town hall. However, supporters of the plan argue that extending the tax cuts, key provisions of which are set to expire at the end of this year, would prevent a significant tax hike for average Americans and benefit low-income families the most.
“American families are facing a massive tax increase unless Congress acts by the end of the year,” Calvert said in a statement to KFF Health News before the vote. He vowed the GOP would not touch Social Security or Medicare. He did not offer similar assurances on Medicaid but said, “We are not interested in cutting the social and healthcare safety net for children, disabled, and low-income Americans. We are focused on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The document greenlit last Tuesday does not specify details on spending cuts. However, it instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare spending, to cut $880 billion—a large chunk of the total cuts of up to $2 trillion. The GOP’s razor-thin majority means Johnson will have a narrow path to getting a more detailed budget passed. Republican support could ebb and flow, whether from fiscal hawks seeking deeper spending cuts or House members concerned about slashing Medicaid, as they hash out the details.
Moreover, the House must compromise with the Senate, which has passed a much narrower budget resolution that excludes the significant tax cuts.
Like Kim, Valadao, and Calvert declined invitations to attend or send staffers to the town hall meetings in their regions. At the Tustin meeting, multiple speakers chided Kim for her absence. At one point, the large screen behind the podium flashed a picture of an empty chair with the words, in large block letters, “Congresswoman Kim, we saved you a seat.”
Kim spokesperson Callie Strock emailed to say that Kim and her local staff had preexisting commitments that night. She added that Kim is “committed to protecting and strengthening our health care system.”
But those in attendance were worried.
“It’s a moral obligation for all of us to look at the most disadvantaged people in our country and take good care of them,” said Beth Martinko, whose 33-year-old son, Josh, has autism and relies on Medi-Cal for his care. “This has no place in politics.”
SOURCE: Story By Bernard J. Wolfson | California Healthline
