The recent reconciliation package forced through Congress presages disaster for the most needy in our society.  The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 12 million Americans will lose all access to primary care.  Our neighbors will ignore problems until they become life-threatening, then go to an emergency room where they will receive the most expensive and most inefficient treatment.  Rural hospitals cannot absorb these astronomical costs and many will close.

On Tuesday, July 15, Republican Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill to reverse the Medicaid cuts for which he voted only twelve days earlier.  One may hope he is acting out of concern for the poor.

Claims of enormous fraud within Medicaid remain unsubstantiated and, even if true, a rational response would be more oversight, not wholesale cruelty.  In case your news source has not shared the timing, these cuts are scheduled for December 31, 2026, seven weeks after the mid-term elections.  The hypocrisy of claiming huge amounts of fraud but delaying a solution for eighteen months should be obvious to every observer.

Contact your members of Congress; the switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.

Jeff Cowell

Tullahoma