Nearly One in Four Delawareans Rely on Medicaid

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. McBRIDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the Representative of the nearly one in four Delawareans who rely on Medicaid: families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities whose lives now hang in the balance.

Republicans in Congress have proposed not only the largest cut in Medicaid in American history but the single largest evisceration of healthcare in American history, period.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, this slash- and-burn proposal would strip health insurance from nearly 14 million people. That is not belt-tightening; it is life threatening.

Since the majority in Congress began advancing this plan, I have heard from hundreds of Delawareans who can't sleep, gripped by the fear of losing the care that keeps them or their kids alive.

Caroline, a young woman from Newark, has a rare condition that requires extensive medical intervention. Without Medicaid, she told me that she could die. Caroline tragically is not alone. If these cuts advance, people will die.

I have heard from doctors, nurses, hospital leaders, and community health clinics across our State. They all agree: Republican cuts to Medicaid will do irreparable harm, eliminating a lifeline for their patients, and putting further strain on our hospital systems that are already facing a workforce crisis.

Let's talk about what is actually in the Republican proposal. The majority party wants to impose needless and excessive paperwork requirements that serve no purpose but to push people off the rolls. They are importing the worst parts of the private health insurance industry, needless bureaucratic barriers and excessive paperwork into a lifesaving program to make it harder to qualify for care, all to pad the pockets of the ultrawealthy.

If that weren't enough, the bill also includes what can only be described as a backdoor abortion ban, prohibiting Medicaid funding from going to family planning clinics that provide abortion services, even if that funding isn't being used for abortion care.

This means shuttering access to trusted providers and family planning clinics, especially in rural areas where options are already scarce. They are doing all of this while forcing working families to pay more out of pocket. When you make working people pay more for basic healthcare, that is a tax.

Republicans in Congress want to tax the healthcare of working people all to just partially pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. This administration and Republicans promised Americans three things last year: lower costs, cutting red tape, and bringing down the deficit.

Let's review what their budget will actually do: It raises costs for working families across the country through new out-of-pocket expenses, higher premiums, and loss in coverage. It creates new bureaucratic red tape for patients, providers, and State governments, barriers designed to trip people up and push them out. It adds $3.7 trillion to the deficit, not to expand care or invest in working people, but to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

I didn't come to Congress to rubberstamp cruelty. I came to fight for the people I represent: the aging parents in Sussex County, the caregivers in Kent, and kids in Wilmington.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to end with the words of another Delawarean, a single mom: ``Without Medicaid, neither of us would have health insurance. My employer doesn't offer health coverage, and I can't afford the $500 a month private plan with high deductibles and out-of- pocket expenses. If we lose Medicaid, we lose everything.''

She added this: ``P.S., I am a healthcare worker with a bachelor's degree. This isn't about being too lazy to work.''

We owe her and millions of others better than this. I urge my colleagues to reject this cruel and catastrophic proposal.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source