We take care of our own: Stop Medicaid cuts

In southeast Iowa, we watch out for each other. If someone is sick or injured, we hold dinners and take up collections to help them pay medical bills. We’ll deliver meals and provide rides. We go out of our way to help.

Now imagine if hundreds of our friends and neighbors, some with serious illnesses, lose their health insurance or care center coverage. There aren’t enough fish fries and bake sales to possibly pay bills for so many people.

We could find ourselves in this fix under a budget plan Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives recently approved. It orders the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to reduce at least $880 billion in costs through 2034. Simple math – and previous budget proposals – show that the bulk of those cuts must come from Medicaid, the federal-state program that helps the poorest among us stay healthy and recover from illness.

Just in Van Buren County, where I live, Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) statistics show 1,637 people were enrolled in some form of Medicaid as of September 2024. That’s almost a quarter of the county’s estimated 7,127 population.

In Jefferson County, the HHS reports 3,755 people on Medicaid in September. Again, that’s almost a quarter of the county’s estimated 15,667 residents. Even if you don’t use Medicaid, you surely know someone who does.

In fiscal year 2024, which ended June 30, 2024, Medicaid paid about $34 million in medical and long-term care bills for Jefferson County residents. Much of that went to the Jefferson County Health Center – one of the county’s largest employers – and to local health care providers. How long would the hospital survive if it lost a significant portion of Medicaid support? How many doctors, nurses and care centers will be able to afford serving our communities without Medicaid to help pay patient bills?

If federal cuts go through, Van Buren and Jefferson counties and the rest of the 1st Congressional District could see Medicaid funding fall by $1.83 billion over the next nine years, the Center for American Progress projects. An estimated 47,000 of the approximately 146,000 Medicaid recipients in the district as of 2023 could lose health coverage – the most of Iowa’s four congressional districts.

Our representative, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, has more power than most lawmakers to stop this plan: She sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Health. Tell her to block cuts that will harm our friends, family members and community. Visit millermeeks.house.gov/contact or call 202-225-6576.

Tom O'Donnell lives in Van Buren County.