On July 1, the U.S. Senate passed a budget reconciliation package that would strip 214,000 Wisconsinites of their health insurance, including BadgerCare, and gut food assistance for many more. The bill will now head back to the U.S. House of Representatives.
What are Medicaid & SNAP?
- Medicaid (which includes BadgerCare) ensures that 1.2 million low-income children and parents, pregnant women, & seniors in nursing homes have health care in Wisconsin.
- SNAP (aka FoodShare) is the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program.
What would the proposed Senate cuts do?
- gut Medicaid even further than the House bill did, which would lead to even more Wisconsinites losing health insurance;
- add more red tape, making it likelier for people to lose coverage because of paperwork mistakes; and
- create big state budget holes, which would force Wisconsin legislators to make even more painful decisions.
Even worse, they’re rushing these reckless cuts because they know how unpopular they are.
Why?
In 2017, Trump’s tax law cut taxes heavily for US billionaires, who have become over $2 trillion richer since. To make these cuts permanent, they’ve chosen to gut health care and food assistance for low-income families.
Call your U.S. House Representative
Ask your legislator to protect Medicaid and SNAP, not the wealthiest 1%, and reject any red tape that makes it harder for people to access services.
- Contact your U.S. House Representative: U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Phone script
“Hello, my name is ___ and I live in ___. I am urging the Representative to vote against the budget bill. This bill would devastate communities like mine across the country by taking away access to health care through cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and it would take away food assistance through cuts to SNAP. Tens of thousands of people would die if this bill is passed in its current form, all to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Instead of cutting basic needs programs, Congress should focus on helping families who need support. Please urge the Representative to do the right thing and reject this horrible bill.”
