Medicaid

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the President called it the Big Beautiful Bill--his budget--the Big Beautiful Bill. That Big Beautiful Bill did give tax breaks--there is no question about it--primarily to the richest people in this country.

Is that what you think is a priority for America? It is not what I think. It is one of the reasons I voted no.

The second thing it did was to cut Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and healthcare providers by $1 trillion over the next several years--$1 trillion.

Do you know what the hospital administrators in Illinois told me would happen as a result of those cutbacks of Medicaid payments? Hospitals will close, particularly downstate hospitals in rural areas and those in the inner cities.

We went to those administrators of the hospitals directly and said: Forget the political hype in Washington. What is going to happen on the ground in the State of Illinois and across the Nation when $1 trillion in Medicaid reimbursement disappears?

They said: Well, first, the hospitals will close certain departments.

I have noticed in Central Illinois--my own experience--that means usually the delivery of babies, as well as behavioral medicine, mental health counseling. Those are the first to go.

But some hospitals won't make it. The hospitals in rural areas, as you know, are small and willful and do their darnedest, with volunteer help from the communities, to stay open, and they are critically important.

If you happen to live in rural Illinois, maybe you are a farm family, and there is a terrible accident that occurs on the farm. Driving 20 minutes versus driving an hour and 20 minutes can be life or death.

So the Republicans who want to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid--$1 trillion--and give tax breaks to wealthy people? Vote me no. Vote all the Democrats no. Those aren't the priorities of this country.

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