Rep. Dingell: “President Trump and the Republicans in Congress made a choice. They looked at working families, children, and seniors, and they decided to cut their health care to pay for tax breaks for the billionaires.”
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Defend America Action is releasing a new report highlighting the devastating health care crisis Donald Trump and Republicans have created for Michigan. After Republicans killed the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, premiums rose an average of 131% for over 470,000 Michiganders, with 40,000 dropping their coverage entirely. The GOP’s Medicaid cuts will push hundreds of thousands more off their coverage, and 15 Michigan hospitals and clinics are either closing, cutting services, or at risk of closure.
Defend America Action also hosted a press call this morning with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06), Michigan State Representatives Carrie Rheingans, Matt Longjohn, and Stephen Wooden, as well as Protect Our Care Michigan’s Dianne Byrum, to discuss Donald Trump’s health care crisis and its consequences for Michiganders.
“People are really hurting right now. People in Michigan are scared,” said U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell. “President Trump and the Republicans in Congress made a choice. They looked at working families, children, and seniors, and they decided to cut their health care to pay for tax breaks for the billionaires. Hundreds of thousands of Michiganders are losing coverage. Premiums have soared. Hospitals across our state are on the verge of shutting down, and rural communities that are already underserved are now facing real emergencies.”
“We’ve been seeing attacks on our public health, we’ve been seeing attacks on treatment, services, service delivery, and coverage,” said State Representative Carrie Rheingans. “Millions of people are losing coverage. We’re seeing announcements every day. Over a decade of sabotage against the Affordable Care Act during Trump 1.0 is just continuing into Trump 2.0.”
“Our health care system was already going in the wrong direction, and then when you layer on what’s happening with the H.R. 1 impacts, it’s truly frightening,” said State Representative Matt Longjohn. “Expectations are that in Michigan, between 200,000 and 350,000 Michiganders are at risk for losing coverage specifically because of H.R. 1. That’s going to be devastating to those individuals and families.”
“People in the state are feeling a cost of living crisis every day. Whether it’s the cost of housing, the cost of groceries, the cost at the pump, people are struggling to pay the bills,” said State Representative Stephen Wooden. “Now they’re starting to feel the pain from the Big Beautiful Bill. Nearly 35,000 Michiganders have already lost or dropped their health coverage due to the spiking costs, because Republicans in DC and President Donald Trump killed the ACA premium tax credits.”
“Donald Trump and congressional Republicans sparked a full-scale health care crisis by making the largest health care cuts in American history,” said Protect Our Care Michigan’s Dianne Byrum. “It was a calculated decision to slash $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act around tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations.”
A recording of the press call is available here. Defend America Action’s new Michigan health care report is available here.
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