Catherine Cortez Masto Warns About The ‘Ripple Effect’ The Big Beautiful Bill Will Have On Healthcare Coverage

Forbes Breaking News

During Wednesday’s Senate Democrats’ ‘Ask Me Anything’ Virtual Event, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) discussed the Medicaid cuts proposed in the Big Beautiful Bill.

Transcript

00:00Hello, everyone. I am so pleased to be able to join you. If you don't know, I'm from Nevada,

00:08and I have been home this past week talking to Nevadans about the impact that this reconciliation

00:16bill is going to have in Nevada and really across the country. And it is just, it's a scary time for

00:24so many Nevadans. There's so much chaos and uncertainty already with this administration

00:28and their policies. And what we are seeing now is just a negative impact that this reconciliation

00:35bill has. It's Medicaid cuts. You're hearing about that. It is. But there's so much to it. So I am

00:43so glad that we are having this conversation with all of you because I think it helps as you ask

00:48questions about what is in it. We are able to talk to you real time so that you see what's going on.

00:54So I understand the question just came through from Pam on Facebook. And our question is, can we

01:00as people organize to show our opposition to this horrible bill? And absolutely, yes, that's the point

01:06here. This is about all Americans coming forward. This is your Congress. These are your elected

01:14representatives. And they are actually behind closed doors, imposing and putting together policy that is

01:22going to harm the American public. So absolutely. This is the goal here is to make sure that we're

01:27shining a light on what is happening so that all of you can use your voices, use your organization

01:34skills and get out in your community and talk, whether you're reaching out to your congressional members

01:40or just making the rest of the, your community understanding what's at stake. Because, you know, here's the

01:47thing we've talked a lot about healthcare, there's so much in this, there's energy impacts on on our clean

01:52energy for our future and clean water and clean air. There is besides the the healthcare impact to

01:59Medicaid, there's impact to Medicare, and there's a ripple effect. You don't have to be on Medicaid or have

02:07the Affordable Care Act. If you're just sitting home, you think, well, I'm not going to be impacted

02:11because I'm not on Medicaid, you will be impacted by these cuts, it's going to have a ripple effect,

02:16and it's going to increase premiums for individuals who have insurance, they are also potentially going

02:22to lose access to healthcare if a rural hospital closes because of these Medicaid cuts, or a hospital

02:31decides they're going to have to cut a maternity unit or somewhere to to kind of address the challenges

02:37that they're seeing in these Medicaid cuts. So too many people are going to lose access to essential

02:42healthcare. So I have another question. And this is from Jessica Craven's audience member, Deb. And

02:51here's a question regarding Medicare, what services will have to be reduced to account for the $500

02:57billion cutbacks? Or will out of pocket costs increase? I'm looking for specifics as much as

03:03possible because that's what will make people sit up and take notice. You're absolutely right. So

03:09as we are looking at the Medicare cuts, you're going to what we will see and what's going to happen

03:15are increases in out of pocket costs for seniors could be impacted. But we're also looking at the

03:22other things that seniors rely on. So think about it this way. We've worked so hard as Democrats

03:30to address Medicare cuts when we cap the cost of insulin for seniors, when we put more money in

03:37their pockets, when we actually required a prescription drug negotiation at the federal

03:43level for the first time, so we can lower prescription drug costs. Now, what this $500 billion cutback does

03:51is really take away some of those savings at the end of the day. So at the end of the day, think about it

03:57in terms of what was given and what we fought for, and some of that is going to be taken back as well,

04:03along with out of pocket cost increase and other things that could happen for seniors when they rely

04:08on Medicare. So that's what's at stake. It's such a bigger and broader issue because we have worked so

04:15hard to bring those cuts and address Medicare and make sure seniors have the ability to access that

04:23preventative care or access the care that they need over the years. And all of that work we've done

04:29is going to be rolled back to pay for some of the cutbacks that we see. So that's the challenge for

04:35seniors. And let me talk about a couple of other things because when I was home, I got a question

04:41with respect to one of our young Democrats, somebody who was on campus, college campus, asking in general,

04:49listen, not as a Democrat or Republican, as a college student, he wanted to know the impacts

04:54of this reconciliation bill to education. And let me see, it's going to be devastating. I'm here to

05:00tell you that they want to cut back Pell grants. They want to eliminate the options that you have

05:06right now to pay your student loans and go back to a time that you only have one ability to pay, and it's

05:14going to be a standard preset payment that you make. And if you have a hardship and you want to

05:20do it on income based, then you have to prove that. So they're going to eliminate the payment

05:25plans now and put it back to just the two payment plans. The other thing that they're going to do

05:30is roll back a rule that actually protected our active military from being scammed by predators and

05:38these for-profit schools. They're repealing that. So for-profit schools now can take advantage of some

05:45of our military when they're seeking access to these loans for their health care. So there's another

05:52question here from Lori on Facebook. So what is sequestration with regard to how Medicare cuts are

05:59being proposed? I'm going to make this very simple because most people don't understand sequestration,

06:04but it is a budgeting tool that requires certain things to kick in if the budget isn't done in a

06:13timely fashion. Very, very simple. And so what is happening now, because we're going through this

06:19reconciliation package and they're not doing the budgeting process in a timely fashion, sequestration

06:25kicks in and this pay-as-you-go requirement kicks in and it mandates under the law that Congress

06:33has to, for lack of a better word, balance this budget. And so it's mandating that if it is not

06:40addressed by Congress that Medicare cuts will happen. It automatically happens in the law unless we

06:47specifically address it. So that's sequestration. There's a lot of tools and policies that are

06:54being addressed right now and I think we're trying to make it as simple as possible so people understand

07:00the real-life consequences of this legislation at the end of the day. We want to make it simple so

07:07people understand you're going to either lose your health care, your costs are going to be higher

07:15for you around your health care. It doesn't matter whether you have Medicare or not, you're still going

07:20to see higher costs because there's the ripple effect. And we haven't even talked about the impact

07:24on food assistance. So many Americans across the country, working people, seniors, veterans,

07:31children rely on food assistance and they're cutting that as well. So there's a lot at stake and we're

07:35just trying to get the information out there. And let me just finally say, you guys are key to all of

07:41this. Once you know about it, your voices and your organization around making your voices being heard

07:48are key so that we can knock out this bill, take out the toxic pieces of it, make sure that at the end

07:55of the day, the billionaire class, the billionaire class, they do not get the tax cuts. They should be

08:03paying their fair share. This is the largest transfer of wealth in this country. This bill is the largest

08:09transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class, the working class to the billionaire class.

08:14That's what this bill does. So Donald Trump's, that's his intent with this. And they're trying

08:20to hide it around language that really is not telling the truth about what's written in the

08:26legislation. And at the end of the day, if we don't fight as a country, if we don't talk about what's in

08:32it and then stand up and demand that it not occur and demand the change and actually ensure that we as

08:40a country are fighting for our poor, fighting for our working class, we should have every advantage

08:45just like the billionaire class and they should not get all these breaks. That's what this is about

08:50at the end of the day. So I cannot thank you enough for everybody listening. I am also excited now I get

08:56the opportunity to introduce the next senator who is going to be with you right now. Listen, I'm a fan of

09:07hers. I'm a girl fan because she's phenomenal. And she has just the passion and the gut and the

09:15persistence to really fight for this country. She has proven that and you will you will know that when

09:20I say who she is. But I get to work with her every single day. And it just I am so pleased and honored to

09:26be able to do just that. So joining us now is Senator Duckworth from Illinois, and I'm going to invite her to join me.

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