Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego joined affordable healthcare advocates on Friday to speak on federal healthcare cuts and their effects on Arizona residents.
Gallego spoke on a livestream alongside healthcare advocacy group Protect Our Care to discuss the impacts of recent federal cuts to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.
Gallego said Republican lawmakers were to blame for vulnerable Arizonans losing coverage, specifically naming Arizona Congressmen Juan Ciscomani and Eli Crane.
"If you would have designed the worst way to actually cut people off from health insurance, create a crisis, increase costs in general — you would have thought it was perfectly planned out by this administration and Donald Trump," Gallego said. "I'm sure that’s not what they planned, but it’s certainly the outcome of this."
In a new report, Protect Our Care estimates nearly 300,000 Arizonans have already lost coverage, and 19 healthcare providers have shut down, cut services or are at risk of losing services.
The report also estimates that Arizona hospitals will lose $31.8 billion over the next decade.
Protect our Care’s report on Arizona’s healthcare coverage losses was published as a part of a larger national campaign by the 501(c)4 social welfare nonprofit in response to sweeping healthcare cuts last year.
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