Courtney Slams Latest Inhumane Health Care Cuts from Big Ugly Bill
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, in a speech on the House floor, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) called on Congress to block new health care cuts inflicted on vulnerable Americans by President Trump’s Big Ugly Bill (H.R. 1).
This month, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services announced new restrictions on the “medical frailty” exemptions for Medicaid work requirements imposed by the Big Ugly Bill. Under the new restrictions, cancer patients and patients suffering from other debilitating diseases will be required to document that the disease actually impairs their ability to work or face losing their health care coverage. This rule is set to take effect on January 1st, 2027.
“A patient suffering from pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, lymphoma cancer will have to demonstrate with job searches and employer paperwork that the disease and the debilitating therapies are an ‘impairment’ – a hopelessly vague standard that will rob desperately ill patients of care,” Courtney said. “To put it in a nutshell, the definition of ‘medical frailty’ is no longer a medical diagnosis by a doctor, but a subjective employability standard that makes no sense. There is a word for this, Mr. Speaker. It is inhumane.”
FULL SPEECH TRANSCRIPT
Five days from now, on July 4th, our country will be celebrating its 250th birthday, and all over the nation there will be enthusiastic events in big cities and small towns to recognize the publication, 250 years ago, of the Declaration of Independence, which as historian Jill Lepore recently wrote in arguably the most important piece of prose in modern history. Its author Thomas Jefferson laid a vision of an independent America built around the individual’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Unfortunately, it is also the one-year anniversary of arguably the worst piece of legislation, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which President Trump signed into law last July 4, 2025.
As the Congressional Budget Office documented, this bill will add $3.4 trillion new dollars to our national debt, provide permanent $1 trillion dollar tax breaks to the top 1% of income earners, cut nutrition programs by at least $187 billion, and worst of all, cuts $1 trillion from America’s largest health care program, Medicaid, starting on January 1st, 2027.
At the time the bill was debated, an overwhelming coalition of hospitals, nursing homes, physician groups, nurses, and patient groups tried to warn the Republican majority and the White House that millions of Americans will be denied health care from this draconian butchery of the health care system. To be exact, 10 million Americans will lose their coverage according to CBO.
The majority dismissed those concerns and jammed this measure through, accusing Democrats of scare mongering. According to them, the new work requirements in the law for vulnerable populations will have exemptions for the “medically frail,” and there was nothing to worry about.
A couple of weeks ago however, RFK Jr’s Health Department released the actual rule state Medicaid directors will have to follow starting in January.
The hope was that a medical diagnosis for cancer, or HIV, or other serious chronic conditions would qualify for protection. Instead, the rule makes clear that a cancer diagnosis will not automatically qualify for an exemption. Instead, the patient will have to document that the disease actually impairs the ability to work.
So a patient suffering from pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, breast cancer, lymphoma cancer will have to demonstrate with job searches and employer paperwork that the disease and the debilitating therapies are an “impairment” – a hopelessly vague standard that will rob desperately ill patients of care.
To put it in a nutshell, the definition of “medical frailty” is no longer a medical diagnosis by a doctor, but a subjective employability standard that makes no sense.
There is a word for this, Mr. Speaker. It is inhumane.
Don’t take my word for it. On this poster is a list of 48 patient groups vehemently denouncing this vicious rule, which Secretary Kennedy and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services should withdraw immediately.
As you can see, the most credible patient groups: American Cancer Society, the Susan Coleman Breast Cancer Foundation, MS Society, American Heart Association, Lung Association, Lupis Foundation, March of Dimes, ALS Association, AIDS Institute to name just a few, have all warned Kennedy and his followers in Congress that this rule will create chaos and dramatically increase the number of desperately ill people who will lose their health coverage.
There is no better way to honor the principles of our treasured Declaration of Independence, to guarantee life and the pursuit of happiness, than to block the grotesque rule which will condemn the sickest and most vulnerable of our society to degradation and pain.
###