The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to make spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. These horrific cuts would result in millions of people losing crucial access to programs like Medicaid, housing assistance, and SNAP! We’re hearing from our allies on the Hill that our community needs to act NOW and contact our Senators!
Medicaid is a government program that pays for health care access for many people with disabilities. Medicaid helps health care providers stay in business in places that are rural or where many people are poor and marginalized. Cuts to Medicaid will mean health care is harder to get in places where there are already access problems. This will hurt many disabled people, especially those who already have the hardest time getting the care they need.
Additionally, the bill includes harmful work requirements that would force many people with disabilities and the people who provide us support to lose coverage. Work requirements are cruel, do not take into account the lived realities of Americans, and jeopardize the health and safety of hundreds of thousands of people who will lose access to Medicaid.
This would also affect our access to Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS)! We rely on Medicaid HCBS to live independently in our communities but it is usually the first place to be hit by cuts when Medicaid funding is tight. There are already more than 650,000 people stuck on waiting lists who are not getting the services they need, and those lists will only get longer. Cuts to Medicaid will also mean more disabled people forced into institutions because they can’t get the help they need to live in real homes!
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps people living on low incomes afford food. Many people who get SNAP have disabilities. SNAP is especially important for people who get SSI. Cuts to SNAP mean people going hungry and having trouble meeting dietary needs!
Affordable housing is on the chopping block too. People with disabilities, especially people who live on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), are already struggling to pay for housing. An estimated 350,000 families would lose the help they get to pay for housing. Cuts to affordable housing assistance will make some people homeless and push others into bad living situations, including institutions.
These cuts would disproportionately affect people with disabilities, low-income families, and communities of color. Years of progress we’ve made in community living for all will be wiped away if this funding is cut. We need to stop this in its tracks and tell Congress to keep Medicaid OUT of debt ceiling negotiations!
Call your Senators and tell them that as a constituent, you want NO cuts to crucial programs like Medicaid!
You can use our script:
My name is [your full name] , and I am from [your city] . I am a constituent of [Senator NAME]. I’m calling to ask [Senator NAME] to oppose cuts to crucial programs like Medicaid in debt ceiling negotiations.
Cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs will hurt many disabled people, especially those who already have the hardest time getting the care they need! This could also force many people into institutions because they can’t get the help they need to live in real homes. Everyone has a right to live in the community and that right includes accessing the support we need. Now, that support is on the chopping block when such cuts would affect millions and do more harm than good.
Can I count on the Senator to say NO to complicated work rules and any cuts to Medicaid in the debt ceiling negotiations?
Congress cannot cut these lifeline programs! Call your Senators today and tell them NO to Speaker McCarthy’s plan.