U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed House Republicans over their proposal to slash Medicaid as a part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,”
House Republicans unveiled legislation on Sunday that that included at least $880 billion in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks provided in Trump’s bill. Ocasio-Cortez railed against the cuts to Medicaid during a House hearing on Tuesday, noting that these cuts would hurt those living in Republican districts.
“If you live in a rural community, you’re going to be hurt too. In NY-23, 25% of people are on Medicaid in this area of upstate New York,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to GOP Rep. Nick Langworthy’s district.
Trump won New York’s 23rd Congressional District with 60% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, while former Vice President Kamala Harris clinched 39% of the vote.
Ocasio-Cortez continued to list rural districts with a large share of residents on Medicaid, including California’s 23rd Congressional District that GOP Rep. Jay Obernolte represents. She said 46% of those people in Obernolte’s district are on Medicaid.
Similarly to Langworthy’s district, Trump secured victory in Obernolte’s district with 57% of the vote, while Harris received 40%.
Ocasio-Cortez also said that Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, represented by GOP Rep. Gabe Evans, has 24% of residents on Medicaid. Trump narrowly clinched Colorado’s 8th Congressional District with 49.56% of the vote, while Harris secured 47.73%.
She also said that Republicans want to cut 13.7 million Americans from their healthcare with their new bill. She said that the bill’s math is “not adding up.”
The Democrat explained that the bill could even hurt those with private insurance.
“This bill bans the people that they kick off of Medicaid from even buying their own insurance from the Affordable Health Care Act exchange. So once you are kicked off Medicaid, you then can’t even buy your own health insurance. It increases costs for people who they deem eligible and who are low income, and forces them to pay even more,” she said.
“And if you have a private insurer, don’t worry, you’re getting screwed over, too, because your health care premiums are going to skyrocket, from the disaster that is happening from this bill,” she added.
Tallying hundreds of pages, the legislation revealed late Sunday is touching off the biggest political fight over health care since Republicans tried but failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during Trump’s first term in 2017.
While Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.
“Savings like these allow us to use this bill to renew the Trump tax cuts and keep Republicans’ promise to hardworking middle-class families,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky, the GOP chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stories by Lauren Sforza
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