Letter to the Editor: ‘Save Medicaid’

A movement of ‘Save Medicaid’ rallies swept across our country and state this week. The U.S. House passed a budget resolution instructing our Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ House Energy & Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion over the next 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed that to achieve this resolution, significant cuts to Medicaid are needed.

As a nurse leader and community organizer, it’s important we understand that ‘Save Medicaid’ is a misnomer— it’s really ‘Save Everybody’. I’ve heard many seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans tell me they fear they won’t survive these cuts. However, if you have amazing private insurance, and if Miller-Meeks defunds Medicaid, let me walk you through how you can die too.

First, rural hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes that depend on Medicaid reimbursements will shut down. Next, those patients flood into larger hospitals that are already at capacity and simply don’t have rooms, procedural suites, or staff, to take on more patients. Lastly, your father has chest pain, but the ER wait time is 16 hours and they don’t have a bed; your wife is bleeding but there’s no colonoscopy availability until next year; your husband has aggressive pancreatic cancer but oncology can’t see them for three months. Pick your scenario, there’s a million ways to die. All with perfectly great private insurance.

This isn’t a Medicaid recipient problem. This is an everybody problem. Whether it’s your parents, spouse, or children, Medicaid recipients are literally their last line of defense. We must defend them.

Eric Kusiak

Iowa City