Cynthia Williams is furious with U.S. House Republicans willing to slash Medicaid, the government-run insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities.
The 61-year-old Anaheim resident cares for her adult daughter, who is blind, and for her sister, a military veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions. Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, pays Williams to care for them, and she relies on that income, just as her sister and daughter depend on her.
“Let’s be real. We shouldn’t have to be here tonight,” Williams told a raucous standing-room crowd of over 200 people at a recent town hall. “We should be home, spending time with our loved ones and our families, but we’re here. And we’re here to fight, because when politicians try to take away our health care, we don’t have the option to sit back and let it happen.”
The House last week approved a Republican budget plan that could shrink Medicaid spending by $880 billion over 10 years, only partially paying for an extension of expiring tax cuts from President Donald Trump’s first term, plus some new ones he has promised, totaling as much as $4.5 trillion.
A spending cut of that magnitude would have a huge impact in California, with nearly 15 million people — more than a third of the population — on Medi-Cal. Over 60% of Medi-Cal’s $161 billion budget comes from Washington.
Williams was among about a dozen providers, patient advocates, disabled people, and family members who stood up one after the other to tell their stories. Rep. Young Kim, a Republican whose district includes this relatively affluent Orange County city, declined an invitation for her or a staff member to attend. But her constituents delivered their message loud and clear to her and the other Republicans in Congress: Hands off Medicaid.
Josephine Rios, a certified nursing assistant at a Kaiser Permanente surgical center in Irvine, said her 7-year-old grandson, Elijah, has received indispensable treatments through Medi-Cal, including a $5,000-a-month medication that controls his seizures, which can be life-threatening. Elijah, who has cerebral palsy, is among the more than 50% of California children covered by Medi-Cal.
“To cut Medicaid, Medi-Cal, that’s like saying he can’t live. He can’t thrive. He’s going to lie in bed and do nothing,” Rios said. “Who are they to judge who lives and who doesn’t?”
Two thirds of Californians across party lines oppose cuts to Medi-Cal, according to a new survey by the California Health Care Foundation and NORC at the University of Chicago.
The town hall here was one of three organized late last month by “Fight for Our Health,” a coalition of health advocacy groups and unions, to target Republican House members whose California districts are considered politically competitive. The other two were in Bakersfield, part of which is represented by Rep. David Valadao, and Corona, home to Rep. Ken Calvert. Multiple other town halls and protests have sprung up across the country in recent weeks.
The coalition has reprised a campaign — part of a broader national movement — that fought against the GOP’s unsuccessful 2017 effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
The Republicans’ loss of House control in the 2018 midterm elections has been widely attributed to their stance on health care. Valadao was among the GOP members who lost their seats in 2018, though he took his back two years later.
Still, he voted for the House budget proposal last week, despite the fact that about two-thirds of the population in his district is on Medicaid — the highest in the state — and even though he is one of eight GOP House members who sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson warning about the “serious consequences” of deep cuts to Medicaid. Valadao’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Calvert, who’s been in the House for 32 years and eked out reelection last November, also voted for the budget, as did Kim. All nine GOP members of California’s congressional delegation supported it, as did all House Republicans except one.
Critics of the budget plan say it helps the rich at the expense of society’s most vulnerable — an argument that was vigorously repeated at the Tustin town hall. But supporters of the plan say that extending the tax cuts, key provisions of which are set to expire at the end of this year, would avoid a large tax hike for average Americans and benefit low-income families the most.
“American families are facing a massive tax increase unless Congress acts by the end of the year,” Calvert said in a statement to KFF Health News before the vote. He vowed the GOP would not touch Social Security or Medicare. He did not offer similar assurances on Medicaid, but said, “We are not interested in cutting the social and healthcare safety net for children, disabled, and low-income Americans. We are focused on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.”
The document greenlit last Tuesday does not specify spending cut details, though it instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare spending, to cut $880 billion — a large chunk of the up to $2 trillion in total cuts. The GOP’s razor-thin majority means Johnson will have a narrow path to get a more detailed budget passed. Republican support, whether from fiscal hawks who want deeper spending cuts or House members worried about slashing Medicaid, could ebb and flow as the details are hashed out.
Moreover, the House must reach a compromise with the Senate, which has passed a much narrower budget resolution that leaves the big tax cuts out for now.
Like Kim, Valadao and Calvert declined invitations to attend or send staffers to the town hall meetings in their regions. At the Tustin meeting, multiple speakers chided Kim for her absence. At one point, the large screen behind the podium flashed a picture of an empty chair with the words, in large block letters, “Congresswoman Kim, we saved you a seat.”
Kim spokesperson Callie Strock said in an email that Kim and her local staff had preexisting commitments that night. She added that Kim is “committed to protecting and strengthening our health care system.”
But those in attendance were clearly worried.
“It’s a moral obligation for all of us to look at the most disadvantaged people in our country and take good care of them,” said Beth Martinko, whose 33-year-old son, Josh, has autism and relies on Medi-Cal for his care. “This has no place in politics.”
Jackson says
Over 60 votes by republicans to do away with the ACA over 16 years and still, nothing more than a concept of a plan for a replacement.
If Trump is so smart, why is he not promoting Medicare for all, a program listed as the most efficient in the world, run by the people Trump is firing.
Thomas Hutson says
Well, Well Flagler County Voter you have a special election in just a few days April 1st 2025. Time to send a loud and clear message to the King and his court of boot lickers of what’s to come if they mess with Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security! Vote Josh Weil to congress in the 6th District that will be an absolute shock to the King, a sign these voters are watching them and will remember them in 2026.
Atwp says
People cast their ballot for this. Many people will die because the Republicans don’t care about their voters. I say goody. Many Republican voters will get hurt by this cut and I say I’m glad. They voted for a white crook over an African American woman, suffer the consequences you all voted for.
jake says
“Kamala Devi Harris was born on 20 October 1964, in Oakland, California. She is a second-generation immigrant, as her father Donald J. Harris was born in Browns’ Town, Jamaica, while her mother Shyamala Gopalan was from Tamil Nadu in India.”
The dude says
Nothing teaches the toddler not to touch that hot stove quite like letting them touch that hot stove…
It’s time to quit trying to protect the MAGA toddlers from themselves and let them go ahead and experience what they openly wished on others.
Make no mistakes about it. MAGA is coming for your Social Security and senior healthcare. And since those programs are projected to be useless by the time I might want to use them ( because of MAGA, teabaggers or whatever else they’ve called themselves this century), I’m all for letting MAGA share in the pain.
I’ve got time. The majority of MAGA does not.
Endless dark money says
GOP terrorist hard at work. Hopefully they will doge the secret service! Paying millions to protect roaches is ignorant.
Eat the rich says
Haha thought billionaires care about anything but money? Elon’s got 40 billion in new contracts!! The debt the debt it’s all tax breaks for billionaires. Welcome to amerikkka where cruelty is the point! Don’t forget to praise mother Russia for being a guiding light .
Nancy N. says
I’m still waiting for Trump and his MAGA lapdogs to explain to me where they expect to find “waste” to cut in Medicaid, which is probably the most underfunded program in the Federal government as it is. Florida Medicaid is virtually useless, impossible to find providers that even take it.
Lynne says
The media has portrayed the tax cuts as only going to billionaires- yet while billionaires benefit more because they pay more as a percentage of the receipts, the tax cuts that benefit families are expiring the end of the year.
“ At the end of 2025, the individual portions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire all at once. Without congressional action, 62 percent of filers could soon face a tax increase relative to current policy in 2026. ”. https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tax-cuts-2025-budget-reconciliation/
“ The TCJA reduced average tax rates for taxpayers at all income levels because it lowered marginal tax rates, widened tax brackets, doubled the child tax credit and zeroed out personal and dependent exemptions, nearly doubled the standard deduction, and limited several itemized deductions and the alternative minimum tax, among other changes. ”. https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/tax-calculator-tcja-expiration/
The media and the Democrats want you to think that this is only about billionaires.
The real question should be why are 1/3 of California residents on Medicaid? Does no one think this is a problem? Why does our country spend 25% of GDP on healthcare? We are bankrupting our country. And who does all this money go to? FOR PROFIT insurance companies and hospital companies! Owned by billionaires!
Joe D says
And before the MAGA HATERS begin hounding on a WORK REQUIREMENT for receiving Medicaid services…some FACTS:
65-68% of Medicaid recipients ALREADY DO WORK …but at jobs that either don’t offer health insurance benefits, or those that pay so little and charge so much for the poor health insurance they do offer (I’m pointing at YOU WALMART), that many of their employees qualify for Medicaid.
Another larger percentage are School and College age students who are not currently working (no surprise there)
A THIRD group qualify as being disabled, and are considered unable to work…many are receiving Social Security disability benefits, but at such a low payment that they too qualify for Medicaid to pick up the portion of their medical care not covered by Medicare
Now we are down to the smallest remaining portion: 8% (yes)….are currently receiving Medicaid benefits and are not working, but don’t belong to the second or third group. Their reason for non-employment is unknown. I DOUBT their work contribution would help much towards undoing the 1 TRILLION in tax cuts planned (essentially) for high income >$400,000 annual incomes and rich corporations the proposed tax cuts are currently planned for…
joe says
It’s sure looking like we are in a full-scale trade war. Aren’t you glad our commanding general in this war is DONALD J TRUMP?
Stock falling as I write this – eggs expected to rise another 41% this year, etc…
Woo hoo! America is back! MAGA forever!
Sherry says
@lynne, You know, of course, that the extension of tax cuts could and “should” include closing those “tax loopholes” so that “Billionaires like trump and musk” are actually forced to “PAY” their fair share of taxes. You also know, of course, that the IRS employees that were fired by DOGE could be replaced by many MORE highly qualified “Tax Assers” to make sure EVERYONE PAYS their fair share of taxes, right?
Your last sentence about Billionaires profiting from our “for profit” pharmaceutical/healthcare system is “Right On”!
The dude says
To the poster lamenting the percentage of people on Medicaid in Cali…
Now do Mississippi, W. Virginia, or Kentucky…
Sherry says
Thanks Dude!