Rep. Grijalva Joins Healthcare Providers, Advocates to Spotlight Dangerous GOP Cuts to Medicaid

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva recently joined Protect Our Care Arizona to mark the ninth annual Medicaid Awareness Month and hold Donald Trump and Republicans accountable for slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to fund tax breaks for billionaires and major corporations. Medicaid is the largest health insurance provider in the country, covering over 68 million Americans , including 1,565,458 Arizonans, and Republicans pulled the rug out from under the program. Children, seniors, people with disabilities and working families who rely on Medicaid are already facing the fallout of this Republican-manufactured health care crisis, as over 108,824 Arizonans have already lost their coverage.
These cuts put hospitals, nursing homes, maternity wards, and critical providers across the state at risk of closing their doors, creating health care deserts and forcing rural communities to travel hours for essential care. So far, eight Arizona hospitals and clinics have closed, risk closure or have announced budget cuts, which will send shockwaves throughout the entire state while also taking away health care workers’ jobs. Panelists discussed the consequences of gutting Medicaid, and held Trump and Republicans accountable for their decision to put tax breaks for billionaires ahead of health care for families.
“They are literally trading the health of our neighbors for the profits of a few,” said Rep. Grijalva. “Medicaid is the largest health insurance provider in this country, covering 68 million Americans. Here in Arizona, it is a lifeline for more than 1.5 million people. These are our children, our seniors, and our families who work multiple jobs just to keep the lights on.”
“Republicans pretend to be ‘anti-bureaucracy’ – yet they pass laws that are designed to bury Arizonans in red tape and prevent them from getting Medicaid coverage. This will cause an estimated 194,000 Arizonans to lose health care coverage. Meanwhile almost 70,000 Arizonans lost health care coverage already because Republicans refused to extend Affordable Care Act premium assistance.
This isn’t just about insurance coverage; it’s about the very infrastructure of our state. When you gut Medicaid, you also gut our hospitals. In our rural communities—places like Nogales and Bisbee—this is a matter of survival. Rural hospitals rely on Medicaid to keep their doors open. One recent study showed that multiple hospitals across the state are at risk of closing due to Medicaid cuts.”
“I'm a primary care provider and I am on the front lines witnessing something I could have never imagined I would see in this country,” said Joy Maines, PA-C MMS. “The unraveling of care, compassion and the basic solidarity that wants to find us as a nation. It's happening now. It's real and it's frightening. $900 billion dollars or almost a trillion, but I'll say $900 billion dollars in Medicaid cuts, it may sound like a statistic, but statistics don't sit in waiting rooms. Statistics don't receive life altering diagnoses. Statistics don't lose their jobs, their homes or their hope. People do. Our neighbors, our co-workers, the very individuals who hold our communities together.”
“And it's also important for everyone to realize that people that are on Medicaid, they're not poor, they're not lazy, they're not trying to scam the system,” said Chris Fells, Tucson mother and advocate. “People are working and still need to be on Medicaid because they don't have another health insurance option. People on disability go through an extremely difficult process before that is approved. So, I think this stigma that some of our Republican leadership tries to portray, that everyone is out scamming the system and abusing it for Medicaid, is just a ridiculous concept that is so untrue and has to be really focused on so we take that stigma away from people that are on Medicaid and that truly need that.”
You can watch the full event here .
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