Michigan Must Fight Back: Dingell Sounds Alarm on GOP Medicaid Cuts

As the U.S. House readies a make-or-break vote on the future of American health care, Rep. Debbie Dingell is warning the alarm. And she’s not blowing it off. On the line are the very lives of millions of Americans particularly our most vulnerable fellow citizens – who barely get by on Medicaid. In Michigan alone, more than 2.6 million people depend on this safety net program, and budget cuts under consideration by Republican legislators could strip that safety net away from them.

Medicaid is not luxury-necessity. It’s what keeps a sick child under the care of a parent, a nursing home as a place a retiree can live, or a disabled person getting the home care they require. It’s one of America’s best health care programs, less expensive per individual than Medicare and private insurance. Congressional Republicans are set to cut it for the biggest U.S. cuts ever.

Rep. Dingell’s recent op-ed is not diplomatic. She does not merely write as a matter of political obligation – she expresses the actual fears of her constituents, people who have written to her in hope and despair. They are not abstractions on policy. They are personal. They are life or death.

Consider the example of Katie, a resident of Dingell’s district. Her son Nathan is preterm, and he has had over 15 procedures done to enable him to breathe. Some of them have cost her over $20,000. Katie can’t pay for these without Medicaid. Without it, Nathan won’t live. And Nathan’s case is not atypical – it is appallingly typical.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration issued a haunting report that estimates as many as 700,000 Michigan residents will lose their health care in the middle of the night if these Medicaid reductions are implemented. That’s almost three-quarters of a million individuals who will be concerned about whether or not they can get to the doctor, fill a prescription, or pay for life-saving care.

Worse still is the ripple effect these reductions would have. Not only individuals will be hurt, but communities. Rural hospitals actually depend greatly on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement. Without it, they could be forced to close their doors or cut necessary services. In parts of Michigan, Medicaid insures a third or more of their citizens. Without those dollars, rural hospitals will close their doors, leaving people to drive longer to seek treatment-even for emergency cases, where minutes count.”.

It’s not only a health-care crisis, however – it’s an economic one as well. These are usually the largest employers in town. If they shut their doors, the firings will ripple far beyond them. From nurses to custodians, from administrators to emergency medical technicians, hundreds of high-paying jobs will disappear. And when those salaries disappear, so does local spending, sucking money out of other small-town economies already on life support.

The testimonials don’t end. A woman asked Dingell if her husband, with Alzheimer’s, would be evicted from his nursing home if Medicaid is exhausted. Others share stories of survival from intensive care hospital stays or living with chronic illness – all because of Medicaid. These are not individuals who are abusing the system. These are individuals who want to live with dignity in a nation that has promised to take care of its own.

The harm that can be done is so egregious that Republican legislators are being shouted at by voters. As Dingell puts it, they are being openly and loudly informed by scared and angry voters of these potential cuts. And they are right to do so. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has already estimated that millions will lose their coverage under the GOP proposed cuts to Medicaid.

So what is to be done?

Dingell sets the tone:

• speak up.
• Speak your truth.
• Make your voice heard.
• Members of Congress need to hear from the very individuals whose existence their votes affect.
• It’s not time to be quiet.
• Call your members of Congress.
• Write a letter. Attend town halls.
• Post on social media.

The battle to save Medicaid is not a political fight – it’s a fight of conscience.

And it’s not just Michigan. These reductions would hit families all across the country. They’d be left with one choice: reduce benefits, restrict eligibility, or just not cover those who qualify. There ain’t no looparound, no magic bullet. The arithmetic doesn’t lie –  cutting almost a trillion dollars from Medicaid would destroy the program beyond recognition.

Debbie Dingell lives it. She is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, squarely at the center of the budget fight. The planned cuts – a mere $880 billion – simply cannot be done without slashing Medicaid to the bone. Which is why she’d like us to raise hell, call for responsibility, and fight like our lives are on it – because to too many of them, their life is literally on it.

Ultimately, this is not a matter of numbers on an Excel spreadsheet – it’s a matter of the conscience of American society. Are we a people who closed our doors to the sick, the poor, and the elderly? Or are we a people who view health care as a fundamental human right?