The looming impact of Republican-backed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid muted any celebration during a Wednesday morning press conference in Hartford, where advocates and legislators marked the 60th anniversary of the popular health care programs.
Instead, the event, organized by the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, largely served as a rough accounting of the human toll expected from the federal budget, passed by Republicans in Congress and signed by President Donald Trump.
“To put it bluntly, I’ll be screwed,” said Sally Grossman, a Connecticut mother and small business owner, who detailed how Medicaid helped her afford health care during a complicated pregnancy and has allowed her to manage chronic migraines.
Grossman bristled at the misconception that the health care program, called HUSKY in Connecticut, somehow enabled Americans to avoid working for a living.
“[Medicaid] doesn’t pay your rent,” she said. “It doesn’t buy you food. It doesn’t make your car payments. It doesn’t put gas in your car. It doesn’t buy diapers, formula. It doesn’t buy school supplies or pay for child care. It simply makes it possible for low-income folks to access health care. And my HUSKY coverage is a reason I can work full-time. It is the reason I can put a roof over my children’s head.”
The working mother’s financial concerns did not deter Trump and legislative Republicans from pushing through a bill that cuts nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
While the Republican bill includes tax breaks for many of the richest Americans, it increases the national debt by $3.9 trillion, triggering around $500 billion in automatic cuts to the Medicare program that serves more than 740,000 Connecticut residents, most of them senior citizens.
“Long story short: the federal budget threatens the ability of older Connecticut residents to age with dignity and grace,” said Sen. Jan Hochadel, a Meriden Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s Aging Committee. “It’s being stripped away from the care that they have earned over their lifetime.”
Sen. Matt Lesser, co-chair of the Human Services Committee, said the Republican cuts to Medicaid would put a roughly $13 billion strain on Connecticut’s budget.
“That is going to jeopardize care for everyone. It’s going to jeopardize our rural hospitals. It’s going to jeopardize our neighborhood community health clinics. It will jeopardize our entire Health Care system,” Lesser said. “Our hospitals rely on this, and when the federal government breaks its commitment. They change the terms of the deal. They renege on their promise that puts huge pressure on Connecticut.”
Liz Dupont-Diehl, the Connecticut Citizen Action Group’s associate director, said the Republican bill seemed intended to inflict cruelty on Americans who were already struggling to get by.
Let’s be clear about what’s happening,” she said, “the Trump regime is taking vital services from people, hospitals, and services, and giving that money to billionaires and to corporations.”
