Rep. Courtney Fighting Tooth and Nail to Save Medicaid from GOP Cuts
NORWICH, CT – In case you missed it, Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) visited with hospital leaders at Day Kimball – a rural hospital in Putnam, Connecticut – and rallied alongside Connecticut residents, disabled patient advocates, and leaders to tell Speaker Johnson and the Trump Administration to “keep their hands off Medicaid.”
Rallies were held across the country yesterday to focus on the 10-year tax and spend budget plan that 217 House Republicans voted to pass on February 25. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the bill would definitely cut the Medicaid program by $880 billion. This plan still requires additional votes to be enacted.
“Medicaid is there to provide essential care for the people of this country. Using it to pay for tax cuts for Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the top 1% is totally immoral and illegal and can never happen. We are fighting back,” said Courtney at a rally in Hartford.
37 percent of children and 41% of live births in Connecticut are covered by Medicaid in our state’s hospitals. In total, state hospitals received $3 billion in Medicaid payments in 2023. Additionally, 68% of nursing home patients rely on Medicaid as their primary source of health care coverage. Medicaid payments in Connecticut total $6 billion which made up 46% of all federal funding Connecticut received in 2023.
“A lot of people think Medicaid is a program that provides services for people in distressed municipalities and larger cities. Nothing could be further from the truth. 40% of births in this country are covered by Medicaid. Out in the quiet corner at Day Kimball Hospital, over 50% of births are provided by Medicaid,” said Courtney. “As the only hospital in northeast Connecticut, Day Kimball is a health care anchor. Decimating the Medicaid program, like House Republicans voted to do, puts the hospital’s future at serious risk.”
The Washington Post reported that nearly half of all rural hospitals nationwide operate at a deficit, with Medicaid barely keeping them afloat. Already, almost 200 rural hospitals have closed in the past two decades, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
During a press conference earlier this month with Governor Lamont and Rep. John B. Larson (CT-010), Rep. Courtney called out the devastating consequences to local community health centers.
“Federally qualified health centers, like the one we are at today, are right in the crosshairs. They provide primary care, behavioral health, dental health, and a whole host of other essential services. Medicaid is the workhorse in terms of making sure that the doors stay open and lights stay on because their mission is to treat people regardless of ability to pay,” Courtney said. “This is about children at birth all the way through the end of life and everywhere in between that's going to be damaged, harmed, and hurt by this proposal that Republicans barely passed a week ago.
”Ahead of the House vote, Rep. Courtney spoke on the House Floor in strong opposition to the bill, stating the GOP plan “leaves middle class and lower income Americans in the dust.” Watch and download his remarks here. To learn more about how the budget impacts the Medicaid program, watch Rep. Courtney’s remarks here.
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