Debbie Dingell: Dems ‘Will Fight Tooth And Nail’ To Not Let Medicaid Be Cut

Forbes Breaking News

During her town hall on Saturday, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) answered questions about the GOP push to cut Medicaid from the Federal budget.

Transcript

00:00Will Medicaid be part of reconciliation, and can they cut it without the 16-17-4-0 votes?

00:09Medicaid will be part of reconciliation, which is why we're fighting Tucson now.

00:15It starts in E&C and then it'll go to the House.

00:18Reconciliation is the one process that is not subject to cloture or to...

00:26So, we're going to have to worry about how we handle it.

00:30What we've got to do, if any of you have friends in districts that may not have somebody like me as your representative,

00:39you need to be going and talking to them.

00:41You need to put the human face on who is going to be hurt.

00:47And we're going to...

00:48We should not and cannot accept it.

00:52They keep saying they're not going to cut it.

00:54Well, let's see what's going to happen.

00:56But the target for the Energy and Commerce Committee, given by leadership,

01:00the only way it can happen is to cut Medicaid.

01:03And we will fight tooth and nail to let that happen.

01:06And I will be doing amendments that put every Republican on record

01:11about what they're willing to cut to their constituents to not do.

01:15Just to be sure you know, it's $880 billion in the reconciliation budget.

01:25That's nearly a trillion dollars.

01:29Think about it.

01:30As far as Michigan, how is the temperature of them covering the difference if it does get high?

01:38Well, I'll answer it for them and then let them do it.

01:40Let me...

01:41I don't know...

01:43I've been told by the governor that 43% of the state government is federal dollars.

01:51And there are no dollars to cover the lost federal dollars.

01:56So that's a reality.

01:57This week, someone said 48%.

02:01I don't know.

02:02Between 43% or 48%, let's be really clear.

02:07There is no money.

02:08The state of Michigan does not have the money to make up this loss of federal dollars.

02:14And I'll let you...

02:16Do you guys want to...

02:17Yeah, it is about...

02:19It's a little over 40%, and it is...

02:22We simply don't have that much.

02:23We have some rainy day funds.

02:26They're $2 billion, $1 billion.

02:29We don't have anywhere near what we need to do to cover.

02:33And because most of it is in health and human services, it will directly impact people.

02:38When 90% of the hospitals in the state close because of that Medicaid hit,

02:42people will start to die.

02:44For many parts of the state, the hospital is all of their care.

02:49It's all they have, if they even have one.

02:51They may have just an emergency center.

02:53Same thing.

02:54They all subsist on Medicaid dollars.

02:57It's the major funder for...

02:59Even our hospital systems here, it's the major funder.

03:03We're more fortunate because we have so many choices over here.

03:05There will be some places to survive this.

03:07But the rest of the state, literally, people will lose their health care and will die.

03:13I have one more comment.

03:14You guys don't like that.

03:17She's going to make a comment.

03:18Kelly's going to comment.

03:19Go ahead.

03:20Go ahead.

03:22Well, I'm just going to give you some idea of the numbers.

03:26In 2016 alone, we're looking at about a $2.2 billion hit.

03:30That's just next year.

03:32$2.2 billion.

03:33And there are $2.6 billion hit on Medicaid.

03:38Well, wait a minute.

03:40We haven't agreed to that.

03:42So let's not...

03:43We're going to fight like hell so that never happens.

03:46Be careful.

03:47I misspoke by saying this is, like, the worst-case scenario.

03:53Debbie Dingell is going to do everything she can to stop this from happening.

03:56But I'm just telling you, like, what percentage right now people are currently on...

04:00The $2.2 billion is $2.2 billion in education.

04:03And what's that all about it?

04:05Way more than that.

04:06Way more than that?

04:07Okay.

04:07Well, then, I guess I have an optimistic view here.

04:11Medicaid covers 45% of births.

04:1365% of nursing home residents in Michigan can be Medicaid as a primary payer.

04:19So that's just an example.

04:21We're going to hit our most vulnerable kids, our seniors, our children, those who are going

04:27to be suffering the most.

04:28The have-nots are going to have less.

04:33And one comment I want to make, generally, is that I feel we lack the ability to communicate

04:39clearly to the people about all the lies that are constantly coming from the administration.

04:45And we've been doing a coordinated effort to track and disseminate those lies so that

04:52everyone can understand all the BS has gone on, that's all I'm saying.

04:57Hopefully, you know...

04:58It's a really good point.

05:00It's one of the reasons we're doing town halls.

05:03We're trying to...

05:04I mean, where do you get your information?

05:06We are trying to create the ecosystem where facts are out there.

05:10Today, before I came here, I was in Ann Arbor, where a senior had...

05:15By the way, this is another thing that really worries me.

05:18A senior had gotten a piece of mail asking for a contribution and had been told that she

05:24was not going to get her Social Security check.

05:27And she needed to send money to fight to be able...

05:31And I said to her, that is not true.

05:33I told her, bring all the mail she had gotten.

05:37I'm going to go and fight that group, whatever group it was that sent that mail.

05:42We are trying to raise the facts.

05:45We are trying to tell people what is true or what's not on the congressional sites, on the

05:51state senators, at the local level.

05:54I know David Coulter is doing it at the county executive level.

05:59The DNC, we're doing it.

06:01The House does a Democratic Daily download.

06:05I think that when you've got questions and you don't know, call my office and we'll give

06:10you the facts and we're going to...

06:11But we do need to push back.

06:14And I think that senior today, who was in absolute tears with me, because she thought

06:20she was going to lose her Social Security check.

06:23And they were asking for money to save it.

06:25So it's a total scam to boo.

06:28So help us know, how do we keep...

06:32We're all trying to spread the ecosystem, use every form of social media there is, be

06:39on podcasts, do town halls.

06:42You've got to help us.

06:43It's the collective we that's got to push back on misinformation.

06:50My question is about the...

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