Rep. Stanton: “There’s a direct line between the Republicans’ action on the One Big, Beautiful Bill and people losing their health care.”
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Defend America Action hosted a press call with U.S. Representative Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04), Arizona State Representative Nancy Gutierrez, former Special Assistant to President Biden for Health Care Jessica Schubel, Protect Our Care Arizona’s Morgan Finkelstein, and Steve Gomez, a Phoenix father whose family depends on ACA coverage, to discuss Donald Trump’s health care crisis and its consequences for Arizonans.
After Republicans killed the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, premiums rose an average of nearly 140 percent for roughly 300,000 Arizonans, with over 107,000 already dropping their ACA coverage entirely. The GOP’s Medicaid cuts have already pushed over 192,000 Arizonans off their coverage, with as many as 500,000 more at risk of losing Medicaid altogether, and 19 Arizona hospitals and clinics are closing, cutting services, or at risk of closure.
“Here in Arizona, where one in four people rely on AHCCCS, the state of Arizona’s Medicaid program, almost 200,000 Arizonans have already lost their coverage. That number is going to keep climbing with hundreds of thousands more projected to lose coverage in the years ahead,” said U.S. Representative Greg Stanton. “There’s a direct line between the Republicans’ action on the One Big, Beautiful Bill and people losing their health care or having massive increases in their health care costs.”
“Every single Republican in the House representing Arizona voted for these cuts that are hurting Arizonans,” said Arizona State Representative Nancy Gutierrez. “We have health care deserts in Arizona, and all of this could be a thing of the past if we had different representation in our state. This is not about providing better care. This is not about making sure people are healthy. It’s just cruel policy.”
“Republicans enacted a bill that cuts $1 trillion from health insurance programs that hardworking Americans are enrolled in: Medicaid, or as folks know it here in Arizona, AHCCCS, as well as the ACA. All to give rich people and big corporations more money,” said former Special Assistant to President Biden for Health Care Jessica Schubel. “Over a million fewer people bought health insurance coverage last year on the ACA marketplace. In Arizona, about 70,000 fewer people signed up for coverage because it’s simply too expensive.”
“We’re seeing hospital closures, threats to closure, providers that are unsure how they’re going to be able to continue to practice in this part of Arizona, and that leaves Arizonans in a really scary place where they are facing longer drive times, longer wait times, in an emergency, regardless of insurance,” said Protect Our Care Arizona’s Morgan Finkelstein. “Congressional District Two and Congressional District Six also happen to have representation that voted to gut our health care system and and create this very avoidable crisis.”
“My wife and I work very hard. We’re actually both self-employed through our LLC, providing consultant and administrative services for different projects. We we bust our tails,” said Steve Gomez, a Phoenix father whose family depends on ACA coverage. “We understand what it’s like to need the ACA coverage. We’ve seen premiums increase dramatically over the past few years, and in that time, we’ve also seen, as the as the premiums have gone up, the quality of care and the amount of care we’ve been able to get for that same dollar has gone down significantly.”
A recording of the press call is available here.
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