On the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) slammed cuts to Medicaid.
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00:00Mr. President, last week, hospital leaders from every corner of my state of Illinois came to Washington.
00:07What was the reason for the trip?
00:10The debate in Washington about the future of Medicaid.
00:14Each and every one of them, from the city of Chicago through the most rural areas of the state,
00:21was concerned about plans by the Republicans in Congress to change the funding for Medicaid.
00:29From the south side of Chicago to Macomb in west central Illinois as well as Rockford,
00:3420 miles from the Wisconsin border, Carbondale all the way downstate, they came to see me.
00:41There are small critical access hospitals in rural areas.
00:45There are safety net hospitals treating the poorest patients.
00:49And there are large teaching hospitals in downtown Chicago.
00:53They're all focused on Medicaid.
00:56All of them told me that Medicaid cuts Republicans have put on the table would be devastating to their hospitals in every corner of my state.
01:07Devastating to the doctors and nurses that they employ, and especially hurtful to the patients and their families.
01:15One told me that it's the only hospital in a 60-mile radius delivering babies.
01:21If Republican plans to cut Medicaid go through, this life or death care could be out of the reach for pregnant mothers.
01:30Another safety net hospital told me they might have to close their doors altogether if the Medicaid cuts happen.
01:38Why?
01:40Why would Republicans in Congress even want to jeopardize health care and ring alarm bells in hospitals across America?
01:48They're trying to, quote, save $880 billion.
01:53Well, what is the critical need to save that?
01:56To perpetuate the tax breaks of the Trump administration for the wealthiest people in America.
02:03Yep, that's the game plan.
02:06That's right.
02:08President Trump and his billionaire buddy, Elon Musk, richest man in the world,
02:14have asked Republicans in Congress to provide a massive giveaway to the wealthiest Americans.
02:21And they want to use Medicaid cuts as the piggy bank.
02:25Let's be clear.
02:27This is not a health care reform plan to improve our health care system or lower costs for families and patients.
02:35Nope.
02:36Republicans are looking to dismantle the basic Medicaid program to help tax cuts for billionaires.
02:45Don't take my word for it.
02:47It's not just another political speech.
02:50Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a bombshell report.
02:56I'm sure the Republicans in charge of the House and Senate didn't anticipate this.
03:01The Congressional Budget Office reviewed the Republican plans to cut Medicaid
03:07and determined the only way Republicans can save money is by removing millions of Americans from this health insurance,
03:15slashing benefits, or cutting access to doctors, nurses, and dentists.
03:21For weeks, Republicans have been adamant that they're only focused on addressing waste, fraud, and abuse from Medicaid.
03:28Then comes the CBO report.
03:31I want to agree with the basic premise.
03:34If there's inappropriate spending, fix it.
03:37But that's not what's happening here, and I think the Republican majority knows it.
03:42The Congressional Budget Office called their bluff and confirmed these Medicaid cuts proposed by the Republicans are not about waste or efficiency.
03:52They're about restricting access of coverage to patients all across the United States, including my state of Illinois.
03:59Under Republicans' watch, CBO stated that 13.7 million Americans will have their health insurance coverage terminated.
04:09Almost 14 million Americans will lose health care coverage if the Republicans go forward with their plan.
04:16What is the acceptable number of constituents losing health coverage for Republicans?
04:22Nationwide, half of all rural hospitals are already in the red, and more than 300 rural hospitals are facing immediate closure,
04:33including 26 in Kansas, 22 in Alabama, 21 in Texas, 9 in Missouri.
04:43How many rural hospitals closing in their states are Republicans willing to accept to help perpetuate tax breaks
04:51for the wealthiest Americans?
04:54Let me tell you, as a person from downstate Illinois, rural hospitals are the backbone of the community.
05:02Not only are they critical places for emergency medical care, they are the anchors of the local economy.
05:09Speaking of the economy, one of the ways Republicans plan to cut Medicaid is by imposing burdensome red tape requirements.
05:18Put paperwork in the path of an individual looking for medical care.
05:22Pile it up.
05:23Make it hard.
05:25Pitched by a Republican as just simply work requirements, this policy withholds health care for eligible patients
05:33until they meet overly complex paperwork requirements.
05:39It's a failing strategy.
05:41In the states that have tried these so-called work requirements, there's been no increase in employment.
05:48The only impact has been patients who were ruled ineligible kicked off Medicaid because they were drowning in paperwork.
05:57What a way to run a country.
06:00Here's an example.
06:02A waitress with diabetes misses the paperwork deadline because the forms were sent to her old address.
06:09She loses her Medicaid coverage and can't access her medications and is forced to miss work to deal with it.
06:16One analysis determined that approximately three million manufacturing, agricultural, and service sector workers
06:24could become uninsured under the simply make sure they're going to work plan.
06:29Who thinks that's a good idea?
06:32Yesterday, House Republicans spent Mother's Day scheming on how to advance these Medicaid cuts,
06:37finally releasing a copy of their legislation so we can see the detail.
06:42It's as catastrophic as we feared.
06:45It is the largest cut in Medicaid in the nation's health history, ripping health insurance away from millions of Americans in every single state.
06:57But it's not too late for a few Republicans, and it only takes a few, four in the House, four in the Senate,
07:04to step up and say they don't want to be part of this.
07:08If they will stand up and say no, we will not risk the health care for millions of Americans as bargaining chips for billionaire tax breaks.
07:17Medicaid provides health insurance for one out of every four people in my state of Illinois,
07:233.4 million people, including 1.5 million children.
07:28Medicaid pays to deliver half of all the babies in my state, half of them.
07:342.3 of the seniors in nursing homes depend on Medicaid.
07:39If Medicaid is not helping to pay for that nursing home or care for seniors,
07:46what's going to happen to grandfathers, those that are affected by it?
07:53It's the largest funder of opioid addiction treatment.
07:56Remember the image of Elon Musk, the richest man in the world,
08:03laughing gleefully as he danced around a stage with a chainsaw in his hand?
08:09The richest man in the world was laughing out loud about his chainsaw cuts to Medicaid.
08:15Well, these cuts are no laughing matter for that rural hospital worrying about having to close its mental health services.
08:22They're no laughing matter for the pregnant woman forced to drive more than an hour to deliver her baby,
08:27because the local hospital shuttered its obstetrics unit.
08:32Wipe that smile off your face, Mr. Musk.
08:35We're talking about life and death health care for America's working families.
08:39Mr. President, I yield the floor.
08:46Here we go.
08:49Justice.
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