‘It Is Morally Bankrupt’: Kim Schrier Slams GOP Bill For Proposing ‘Largest Cut Ever’ In Medicaid, SNAP

At a House Democratic press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. Kim Schrier (D-WA) spoke about the GOP budget reconciliation bill.

Transcript

00:00Well, thank you, Vice Chair Liu. It's really an honor to be here, but the reason is outrageous,

00:10and I want to express that outrage on behalf of my constituents, that the Republicans at

00:17this moment are attempting to make the largest cut ever in Medicaid and the largest cut ever

00:24in SNAP. That would be $715 billion out of Medicaid, which would kick 13.7 million Americans off of

00:34their health insurance. And let me just reiterate, why are they doing this? They are doing this to

00:40pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans like Elon Musk. It is morally bankrupt, and it is

00:49fiscally incredibly irresponsible. We just spent 26 and a half hours in the Energy and Commerce

00:55Committee last week, spending the vast majority of that time, and by the way, starting at about

01:01two o'clock in the morning, talking about these cuts to Medicaid and how they would devastate our

01:07constituents and also the broader health care system. I want to be clear, one out of three

01:14Washingtonians depend on Medicaid. Most of them don't even know they're on Medicaid because we

01:20call it Apple Health, and I'm trying to make that point so that people understand how this impacts

01:25them personally. So I think about, as a pediatrician, I think about my patients on Medicaid or on Apple

01:32Health who will no longer be able to come to their pediatrician's office for screenings, for a simple

01:37cold, for a cough, and get treated in a half hour. Now they're going to go to the emergency room, the most

01:42expensive place to get care. They're going to drive up costs. That cost will be provided for free,

01:49and then everybody pays. And I think then about my patients who are not on Medicaid because they're

01:57going to be waiting longer in the emergency room. They're going to be paying more. Premiums are going

02:01to go up if we want to keep these hospitals and emergency rooms open. And that brings us to other parts

02:07of my district, the rural areas where hospitals may close because they depend so heavily on Medicaid and

02:15Medicare. I want to tell you a quick story of a little four-year-old girl named Isla in my district.

02:21She is the outcome of a normal, uneventful pregnancy. She was lucky enough to go to our rural hospital

02:29called Kittitas Valley Healthcare. And they have a labor and delivery department. She was delivered. There were

02:37major complications. She almost died, but they had the staff and the expertise to rescue her, to stabilize her,

02:43and to life flight her to Seattle Children's. And then I have been reflecting, as have her parents, who are insured,

02:52about what would have happened had Medicaid been cut, had labor and delivery there been cut, had she not had that

02:59opportunity for rescue and for transport to save her life. And we all know what the answer would have been. I've been in

03:06hundreds of deliveries. Some go well, some don't, and you don't always know until that moment. So I want to emphasize

03:15Medicaid is part of the three-legged stool that is our healthcare system. If Medicaid is cut in this

03:23dramatic way, that stool will fall. It'll mean hospital closures, higher rates for all of us, emergency

03:30room, long waits, a sicker community, and a poorer community. And it is reckless and morally reprehensible.