ICYMI: In New Op-Ed, Warren Warns Trump, Republicans Could Cut Health Care for Millions
“Should the government work for billionaires and giant corporations? Or should it work for working people, helping our friends, families, and neighbors get access to the medicine and doctors they need when they’re sick?”
“Republicans may think they have the votes in Congress to cut health care, but if Americans ring the alarm bells and fight back, we can again save health care coverage for millions.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, published an op-ed warning of the dangers of massive cuts to Medicaid to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and giant corporations. Senator Warren called for working people to fight back and participate in the tax fight by voicing their opposition to these cuts.
Read the full op-ed here and below:
Boston Globe - Senator Warren: Trump is targeting Medicaid. Don’t let him win.
March 3, 2025
President Trump and Elon Musk have unleashed a sandstorm of chaos in the past six weeks — on purpose. From starting a trade war with Canada to renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Trump is trying to distract from his real agenda: more tax giveaways for billionaires and billionaire corporations, paid for on the backs of hard-working Americans. One of their top targets? Medicaid.
Life carries lots of risk. No one knows if their grandmother will outlive her savings. No one knows if their baby will run up a million dollars in medical bills. No one knows if their sister will be in a catastrophic accident and need full-time caregivers.
And that’s where Medicaid steps up. Medicaid is jointly funded by states and the federal government and covers more than 79 million people, including almost 2 million people in Massachusetts. If the program is cut, the harm will echo through nearly every home in America.
About half of all births are covered by Medicaid. Over a third of all children have health care thanks to Medicaid. More than half of all nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid. Many people are counting on Medicaid to pay for medicine that treats their cancer, the hip replacement they need to walk, the prescription for their child’s inhaler, or the nursing home that takes care of their uncle with dementia.
Cuts to health care programs would be devastating. In Massachusetts, nearly 2 in 3 seniors in nursing homes are covered by Medicaid. If that funding is cut, some of those nursing homes will be forced to cut back or close entirely, which could leave elderly people kicked to the curb.
Around 92 percent of working-age adults receiving Medicaid coverage are either working — often two or even three low-wage or part-time jobs — or not working because they’re caregivers, have an illness or disability, or are in school. Cuts to Medicaid could mean they have to decide which medicines they will have to skip or whether they will need to cancel a trip to the doctor to have a cough checked out. Failing to treat medical conditions early will cost more money, both in higher long-term medical bills and in knocking more low-wage workers out of their jobs and jeopardizing their ability to support their families.
For pregnant women, decisions about skipping visits to the doctor or forgoing prenatal vitamins can leave them and their babies at risk — again triggering greater costs in the long run for them and their babies. Denying health care to pregnant women could mean that their babies develop preventable conditions that could alter their entire lives.
The consequences of cutting Medicaid will be felt in nearly every community. Massachusetts is rightly proud of its community health centers and network of local and regional hospitals. Without Medicaid, their business models simply wouldn’t work. About half of all revenues at our community health centers come from Medicaid. Significant cuts in funding will probably mean health centers will have to cut care — and may have to close pediatric wings, cancer treatment centers, and mental health services.
All this misery so that a handful of billionaires and billionaire corporations can get another tax break.
The legislative process is not glamorous, but it tells us a lot about our values as a country. Should the government work for billionaires and giant corporations? Or should it work for working people, helping our friends, families, and neighbors get access to the medicine and doctors they need when they’re sick?
Trump, Musk, and Republicans in Congress have made it clear whose side they’re on: giant corporations and billionaires — the very people who don’t seem to understand what one bad medical diagnosis can cost a family. But they do understand that cutting health care for millions of people is unpopular everywhere, which is why they are probably hoping people will pay more attention to Trump’s bluster about buying Greenland than to the tax fight unfolding in Congress. Now is not the time to tune out — now is the time to fight back to save the health care program that helps millions of people in this country get health care.
In 2017, Trump paired up with Republicans in Congress to slash Medicaid by $800 billion and gut health insurance protections. Democrats were in the minority in the House and Senate back then, just as they are today, but thanks to people raising their voices and shaking the ground under the feet of these Republican politicians, their efforts failed, and we managed to save health care for millions.
Republicans may think they have the votes in Congress to cut health care, but if Americans ring the alarm bells and fight back, we can again save health care coverage for millions. We can win, but only if we fight back.
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