[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 82 (Thursday, May 15, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H2056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            NEARLY ONE IN FOUR DELAWAREANS RELY ON MEDICAID

  (Ms. McBride of Delaware was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Ms. McBRIDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the Representative of the 
nearly one in four Delawareans who rely on Medicaid: families, 
children, seniors, and people with disabilities whose lives now hang in 
the balance.
  Republicans in Congress have proposed not only the largest cut in 
Medicaid in American history but the single largest evisceration of 
healthcare in American history, period.
  According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, this slash-
and-burn proposal would strip health insurance from nearly 14 million 
people. That is not belt-tightening; it is life threatening.
  Since the majority in Congress began advancing this plan, I have 
heard from hundreds of Delawareans who can't sleep, gripped by the fear 
of losing the care that keeps them or their kids alive.
  Caroline, a young woman from Newark, has a rare condition that 
requires extensive medical intervention. Without Medicaid, she told me 
that she could die. Caroline tragically is not alone. If these cuts 
advance, people will die.

  I have heard from doctors, nurses, hospital leaders, and community 
health clinics across our State. They all agree: Republican cuts to 
Medicaid will do irreparable harm, eliminating a lifeline for their 
patients, and putting further strain on our hospital systems that are 
already facing a workforce crisis.
  Let's talk about what is actually in the Republican proposal. The 
majority party wants to impose needless and excessive paperwork 
requirements that serve no purpose but to push people off the rolls. 
They are importing the worst parts of the private health insurance 
industry, needless bureaucratic barriers and excessive paperwork into a 
lifesaving program to make it harder to qualify for care, all to pad 
the pockets of the ultrawealthy.
  If that weren't enough, the bill also includes what can only be 
described as a backdoor abortion ban, prohibiting Medicaid funding from 
going to family planning clinics that provide abortion services, even 
if that funding isn't being used for abortion care.
  This means shuttering access to trusted providers and family planning 
clinics, especially in rural areas where options are already scarce. 
They are doing all of this while forcing working families to pay more 
out of pocket. When you make working people pay more for basic 
healthcare, that is a tax.
  Republicans in Congress want to tax the healthcare of working people 
all to just partially pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. This 
administration and Republicans promised Americans three things last 
year: lower costs, cutting red tape, and bringing down the deficit.
  Let's review what their budget will actually do: It raises costs for 
working families across the country through new out-of-pocket expenses, 
higher premiums, and loss in coverage. It creates new bureaucratic red 
tape for patients, providers, and State governments, barriers designed 
to trip people up and push them out. It adds $3.7 trillion to the 
deficit, not to expand care or invest in working people, but to fund 
tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
  I didn't come to Congress to rubberstamp cruelty. I came to fight for 
the people I represent: the aging parents in Sussex County, the 
caregivers in Kent, and kids in Wilmington.

                              {time}  1015

  Mr. Speaker, I am going to end with the words of another Delawarean, 
a single mom: ``Without Medicaid, neither of us would have health 
insurance. My employer doesn't offer health coverage, and I can't 
afford the $500 a month private plan with high deductibles and out-of-
pocket expenses. If we lose Medicaid, we lose everything.''
  She added this: ``P.S., I am a healthcare worker with a bachelor's 
degree. This isn't about being too lazy to work.''
  We owe her and millions of others better than this. I urge my 
colleagues to reject this cruel and catastrophic proposal.

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