Sen. Ruben Gallego says proposed Medicaid cuts will leave families uninsured

Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego says proposed Medicaid cuts will negatively impact reproductive health care for Arizona families.

The U.S. House and Senate are working on a federal budget which calls for $880 billion of cuts to Medicaid to help pay for tax cuts. Arizona is one of a handful of states with a trigger law, meaning the state’s Medicaid expansion program — which covers childless adults and low-income residents — will end if the federal match falls below 80%.

That includes hundreds of thousands of Arizonans.

Gallego said at a town hall in Phoenix on Tuesday that means less care for families.

“There is no going back. We will be kicking off vulnerable women in one of the most difficult times and make them basically take a crapshoot about the birth and health of their babies and of course just their own self,” Gallego said.

Alicia Jefferson attended the townhall with her baby son. She said without Medicaid, caring for her children — including a son with asthma — would destroy her family.

“My biggest fear is that if this is to be passed, what fail-safes do we have so that I don’t go bankrupt just trying to make sure that he has vaccines, my middle child has vaccines, my oldest, my oldest doesn’t die because he can’t breathe?” Jefferson asked.

Gallego told her there is no fail-safe. He called for people to reach out to their Republican representatives and ask them to block the proposed cuts. If a handful of Republicans vote with Democrats, they’ll be able to stop the proposed cuts.

Camryn Sanchez/KJZZ

Gallego called out Republican Congressmen David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani in particular as representatives voters should reach out to. They represent two of Arizona’s most competitive districts.

The townhall took place in Schweikert’s district.

Ciscomani signed onto a letter last week pledging not to vote for legislation which reduces Medicaid coverage.

Gallego said he believes Republicans know the cuts can hurt their constituents and may come around.

Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju hosted the town hall with Gallego. She said this is the “most significant five-alarm fire for health care and reproductive health care that folks aren’t really talking about yet.”

Medicaid pays for many elements of family planning services including sexually-transmitted infection tests and birth control.

Timmaraju said her organization is hosting these events all across the country.

Gallego warned that the Medicaid cuts would have an effect on rural Arizona in particular where a much larger percent of residents are on Medicaid than in Maricopa County, and where there are fewer hospitals or clinics for people to go to when they need medical attention.

Will Humble led the Arizona Department of Health Services when Arizona lawmakers expanded Medicaid. He said that cutting Medicaid expansion would affect more than the Arizonans covered through the program who would lose insurance immediately.

“These hospitals are going to stop providing the services that are causing the red ink, in other words, if there’s a department within the hospital that isn’t paying for itself, that’s going to go away,” Humble said.

He predicted that’ll have an effect on plenty of other Arizonans with other kinds of insurance.

“Things are coming unglued a lot faster than I thought,” Humble said. He added that he expects once the cuts are made, there may be some permanent damage to the health care system.