Arizonians use Summertime Town Halls to Speak out Against Medicaid Cuts

Senator Mark Kelley speaks and takes questions at Medicaid town hall July 11. (Photo Credits Mark Kelley Press Natalia Cardenas)

After the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, residents of Arizona have taken to public town halls this summer, hosted by Arizona Democrats like Sen. Mark Kelley and Rep. Ruben Gallego, to speak out against the large incoming cuts to state Medicaid funding.

In April, at a Clarksdale town hall, a rural doctor expressed concern that their patients would suffer illness without proper treatment or go into debt because they cannot afford to pay out of pocket. Others spoke about the ability to support their families.

"What will the consequences be? Well, we potentially will have half a million people without - newly without - health insurance. Now those people will still get sick, and they will show up at the hospital when they are sicker. And they'll show up in an emergency room," said Sen. Kelley in Clarksdale, "Then they are more likely to wind up in an ICU, and they’re more likely to die. And the cost to treat those people will be much higher,"

In Arizona specifically, the intended cuts to Medicaid will come from several areas of the budget and are expected, by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee's (JLBC) projection, to include the following impacts over the next several years:

• Enrollment in AHCCCS (Arizona's Medicaid) will be reduced by 117,000 people by the year 2030

• Arizona hospitals will lose $2.1B in total by the year 2032 (as they were projected to bring in $3.6B before the Bill's passage and are now projected to bring in $1.1B)

• The Hospital Assessment Cap (a tax on hospitals that is used by states to draw in federal matching funds under Medicaid) will decrease by 2.5% (impacting the state's ability to bring in federal Medicaid dollars)

• Rural Provider Grants will offer back $500M over 5 years (but this will not make up for the loss of $2.1B in funding)

Doctors, parents, and even teachers and public servants have spoken at the town halls and shared their own stories of their connection to the large web of state healthcare, and what would be at stake for them if they - or those under their care - lost coverage.

" Once you chisel away at Medicaid, you chisel away at the ecosystem as a whole. My kids aren't going to lose coverage, they're not... they're not going to lose they're services," said town hall speaker and Arizona mother Quianna Brown, "The coverage means nothing if they don't have access to services."

Brown attended another town hall hosted by Sen. Kelley earlier this summer as a concerned member of her community, but the experience made her realize she had a unique, multifaceted perspective on the Medicaid system that others did not have from being the wife of a veteran and mother to children who require special care.

"I didn't walk into that town hall an activist, but I sure walked out as one," she said.

AZ Resident. Quianna Brown speaks at Medicaid town hall on July 11

Other speakers who work in public health themselves mentioned the impacts of impending healthcare cuts that they are already seeing play out for those who come to them for services. Wendy Armendariz, CEO of Neighborhood Outreach Access to Health (NOAH), used her remarks to emphasize the reliance that health centers have on Medicaid and the impacts that the Medicaid cuts will have on delivering care and services.

Arizona public schools will also be impacted by funding cuts laid out in the Big Beautiful Bill, which is an additional loss for many school-age children who might also lose Medicaid coverage in the next few school years.

Middle school teacher Alixis Agurre said this coming school year will be hard, despite her students' impressive academic performance in the year prior, "When federal funding disappears, we're not trimming excess, we're trimming to the core of our public education system," she said. "How much more can we be asked to do without the resources?"

Middle school teacher Alexix Aguirre speaks at Medicaid town hall on July 11

"I know that Medicaid, food assistance and a good public education - these are the pathway for hardworking Americans to get into the middle class," Sen. Kelley said, "they're the foundation of the American dream; that promise that if you work hard that you can put a roof over your head, and food on the table and give your kids a better life than the one you had."

While the town halls hosted by Arizona politicians have received a lot of engagement from the public, Arizonians have also spoken out on their own and even engaged in protests to condemn the passage of deep lasting cuts to state Medicaid funding.

Mark Kelley speaks at Medicaid town hall July 11