Ted Lieu Warns Medicaid Cuts Could Lead To Hospital Closures, Higher Out-Of-Pocket Costs

During a House Democratic Leadership press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) slammed possible cuts to Medicaid.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. Honored to be here with DPCC Chair Dingo and Co-Chair Trehan.

00:07You may have seen recent reports showing that 19 billion passwords were hacked and put online,

00:14so my public service announcement for today is change your password.

00:19Unless you're Pete Hexeth, because you have no concept of operational security,

00:23Pete Hexeth texted advance information on combat operations to random people

00:28more than once on a signal application, and we know from recent reporting that the signal app

00:35that the Trump administration was using was a modified version done by telemessage.

00:39We know at least Mike Waltz was using that. Maybe that's one reason he was fired by Donald Trump.

00:44I urge reporters to ask Pete Hexeth if he also was using the modified signal application that was hacked.

00:52Now I'd like to talk about Medicaid.

00:53So we know that Republicans voted already through the budget resolution to cut $880 billion from Medicaid.

01:02Now they're talking about imposing red tape requirements.

01:05I want you to understand what that means.

01:07That means every Medicaid recipient would have to fill out immense amounts of paperwork.

01:11They try to do this in Alabama and Georgia and end up achieving no-cost savings.

01:16And Medicaid is so important to America.

01:20Two-thirds of patients in nursing homes are funded through Medicaid.

01:24In addition, people get lifesaving health care through Medicaid.

01:29And what happens if people don't get health care through Medicaid?

01:32Well, guess what?

01:33They're still going to get health care by walking into the emergency room and getting treated that way,

01:39which is even more expensive.

01:40If you make cuts of Medicaid, it's going to close down hospitals, including rural hospitals.

01:44So we urge Republicans to vote no on the dramatic Medicaid cuts.