POCIL leaders joined Chicago Tonight to discuss how proposed cuts to the Medicaid and SNAP could affect Illinois communities.

Watch here: https://news.wttw.com/2025/07/02/chicago-tonight-black-voices-july-2-2025-full-show

From “catastrophe” to “nothing ‘beautiful,” Illinois Democrats on Tuesday slammed the Senate passage of President Donald Trump’s tax bill that would lead to 500,000 Illinoisans losing their health care coverage.

As the measure heads back to the House for approval, Democratic activists are now focusing their efforts on the three Republican members of the Illinois delegation, despite their allegiances to Trump: Reps. Mary Miller, Darin LaHood and Mike Bost. House leaders have said they still want to clear the measure by Trump’s self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.

And in LaHood’s 16th Congressional District, the group Protect Our Care Illinois traveled through his central Illinois district with mobile billboards that read, “Over 24,000 people in our community will lose health care coverage.” According to the group, 139,474 people in the district are enrolled in Medicaid and 29,012 residents rely on SNAP.

Read the full article here: https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2025/07/01/democrats-deride-senate-trump-activists-target-house-vote

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2025

CHICAGO, IL — Today the Senate pushed through a reconciliation bill that would do lasting harm to families across the country. Instead of rejecting the House’s deeply flawed legislation, the Senate doubled down — and made it worse.

The Senate’s version adds even deeper cuts to Medicaid, threatening care for millions of children, seniors, and people with disabilities. It strips away health coverage, raises costs, and undermines protections that Americans rely on — all to hand massive tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations.

This bill doesn’t fix our healthcare system — it dismantles it. And it does so at a moment when people need more security, not less.

Now the bill heads back to the House. Every representative will have to decide whether they’re willing to back a plan that puts politics and profits ahead of people’s health. The stakes couldn’t be higher. 

Lawmakers must choose: stand with the families who depend on Medicaid, or cave to special interests demanding yet another tax break. The American people deserve better — and they’re watching. It’s time for Congress to reject this reckless legislation and start working on real solutions that protect care, lower costs, and put people first. Read More…

Congress is considering a massive federal budget cut that would gut Medicaid by at least $800 billion over the next decade — a move that would devastate healthcare access, eliminate jobs, and destabilize hospitals across Illinois. These proposed cuts are not abstract numbers — they represent a direct threat to the 3.4 million Illinoisans who depend on Medicaid and to the hospitals that care for them every day. If enacted, this legislation would unravel our essential care infrastructure and endanger lives in every corner of the state.

Read the full article here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/medicaid-cuts-threaten-illinois-health-care-delivery-op-ed

Inside Marely’s hospital room, the mother massaged her baby’s feet and played with her hands. Marely’s dad Jose listened to her failing heart one last time with a stethoscope. Then, the mother took her turn.

“And I remember crying because I was like, ‘I carried this heart for nine months,’ ” Santos says. “We’ve been able to keep it alive for another six. But will we keep it alive for another day to get the transplant?”

Marely made it in time. Her mom calls her daughter’s new heart “Marely’s miracle.”

After the hospital, Marely spent another six months in transitional care before finally coming home in January. She’s now nearly 2 years old. A big reason she is able to live at home is because of Medicaid. The public health insurance program for low-income and disabled people covers the cost for medically fragile children dependent on technology. Similar care in a hospital or another facility would be far more expensive.

A study at Lurie showed that the cost for a group of children on ventilators who were delayed in returning home because they couldn’t get nursing care was about $180,000, on average, per patient while they waited.

Medicaid covers everything from Marely’s portable ventilator and feeding tube to a nurse trained in managing the breathing machine. This program is available to families who have private insurance, too, like Marely’s parents, because caring for medically fragile children at home is significant — Marely is eligible for at least $30,000 a month for nursing, for example — and private insurance often doesn’t fully cover these costs, if at all.

As the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate is set to vote on drastically slashing federal spending for Medicaid to help cover tax cuts, families, doctors and nurses worry about what could happen to children like Marely.

“There’s absolutely no way families can pay for the care that their children need to allow them to stay at home,” Knowles says. “You would have to be so immensely well off, and unfortunately most of our families aren’t.”

Read more here: https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/06/21/medicaid-toddler-heart-transplant-kassandra-santos-marely-chavarria-santos-lurie-childrens-hospital

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said the GOP’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will negatively affect the healthcare, and those receiving benefits at a Thursday afternoon press conference at the Peoria County Health Department.

Duckworth said the cuts in the bill will hurt those who receive Medicaid benefits, like the disabled, and other medical facilities and programs in rural communities.The bill proposes to create stricter requirements for Medicaid recipients and cut $50 billion in federal Medicaid spending on rural hospitals over the next decade. She said she believes this is happening because the GOP needs to find $4 trillion to fund tax cuts to the upper class for ten years.

Read the full article here: https://www.25newsnow.com/2025/06/19/democrat-sen-tammy-duckworth-says-gops-big-beautiful-bill-will-negatively-affect-healthcare/?outputType=amp

Activists protesting changes to Medicaid and SNAP benefits contained in President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” gathered outside Rep. Darin LaHood’s (R) Rockford office on Wednesday.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_mUSlW8XaQ

Cuts to Medicaid and strict, “bureaucratic” work requirements to keep the insurance won’t just harm poor people — they will push the costs of health care higher nationwide, according to the head of one of Chicago’s largest groups of health clinics.

Read the full article here: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/health-care/medicaid-cuts-would-drive-costs-nationwide-erie-family-ceo?utm_content=article7-headline&utm_source=morning-10&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20250606

Katrina Falkner knows what it’s like to be stuck in a Medicaid paperwork morass. The Chicago resident, who cares for her elderly father and other family members with disabilities, said she was disenrolled from the program in 2023 after the state Department of Human Services lost the paperwork that she had spent days organizing.

The agency told her that it reinstated her, she said. But when she went to the hospital, she found out she was still uninsured. It took several visits to multiple agency offices before the issue was resolved the following year.

The department told CNN that such scenarios are “extremely rare” and it works to “ensure timely review and enrollment” for all applicants eligible for Medicaid.

Falkner, 43, volunteers with several community organizing groups at least 20 hours a week and works every other Saturday as a Head Start ambassador for the Chicago Early Learning program. She also suffers from asthma, anemia, vertigo and other conditions, which can make it hard for her to work or volunteer at times. Being able to meet the reporting requirements concerns her, especially since her electricity and internet access are sometimes cut off.

“If I lost my Medicaid, it would cause me a whole lot of struggles,” she said, noting that the program covers her nebulizer and other health care needs. “If they don’t have the right documents, I won’t be able to be in existence because I can’t breathe.”

Read the full article: https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/31/politics/medicaid-cuts-work-requirements-gop-bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2025

CHICAGO, IL — Today, just before sunrise, the U.S. House passed Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” — a dangerous and deeply unpopular reconciliation package that would rip health coverage away from millions, gut Medicaid, slash ACA support, and drive up healthcare costs across the board. Illinois Republicans Mary Miller (IL-15), Darin LaHood (IL-16), and Mike Bost (IL-12) voted for this disastrous legislation, putting the interests of billionaires and big corporations over the health and economic security of their constituents.

Let’s be clear: this bill represents the single largest rollback of health coverage in U.S. history.

According to analysis from the Center for American Progress:

• In Illinois’ 12th District (Rep. Bost), over 43,000 people would lose coverage.
• In Illinois’ 15th District (Rep. Miller), nearly 44,000 people would lose coverage.
• In Illinois’ 16th District (Rep. LaHood), more than 52,000 people would lose coverage.

And that’s just the beginning. The bill would:

• Slash Medicaid funding by over $2.5 trillion nationwide, threatening access for children, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families.
• Cut Medicare nearly $500 billion over the next decade.
• End ACA subsidies that help nearly 330,000 Illinoisans afford their coverage.
• Spike premiums and out-of-pocket costs for people who buy insurance on the individual market.
• Reduce benefits and force cuts to hospitals and rural clinics, especially in underserved communities.
• Impose harsh bureaucratic red tape that would kick people off their coverage simply because of paperwork errors.

Republicans jammed this bill through just ten days after it was introduced and made major changes just hours before the vote — without a single committee hearing or full analysis of the consequences. This bill will only become more toxic as Americans discover how much harm it will do to our health coverage, our healthcare, and our health costs.

No one campaigned on kicking millions off health insurance or gutting Medicaid, but that’s exactly what Reps. Miller, LaHood, and Bost just voted for.

This is not fiscal responsibility — it’s cruelty wrapped in a budget bill. It’s a direct attack on pregnant women, children, people with disabilities, veterans, and rural communities who rely on the very care this bill puts on the chopping block. Meanwhile, the ultra-wealthy and big corporations walk away with massive tax breaks.

Protect Our Care Illinois, together with our entire coalition, stands with the millions of families, patients, and providers across our state who are sounding the alarm. This fight isn’t over. We call on the Senate to reject this immoral bill and instead work on real solutions that expand coverage, lower costs, and strengthen care.

We will not forget this vote — and we will keep fighting to protect the care that Illinoisans count on every day.

Protect Our Care – Illinois is a statewide coalition of health care advocates, providers, and consumers joining together to protect and defend Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Protect Our Care – Illinois invites you to join Illinoisans across the state to defend access to quality affordable health care for all.

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Media Contact:
Josh Schrader
402-860-0689
[email protected]
www.protectourcareil.org