MOORHEAD — When Jessica Cain voted to reelect President Donald Trump, she did not believe funding for Medicaid, a program on which her family relies, would be in jeopardy.
“The ‘big, beautiful bill’ was, in fact, something I believed in,” Cain said, adding she believed that instead of Medicaid facing cuts, it would get shifted to the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-led U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Cain, a personal care attendant and member of the SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa union, was one of around two dozen people gathered outside the Moorhead office of
U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach,
R-Minn., on Wednesday, July 9, to voice concerns about the recently signed federal spending and tax bill. The law, dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” by Trump and congressional Republicans, was signed Friday.
The law includes
massive spending and tax cuts.
It outlines various
changes and cuts to Medicaid,
which provides health coverage for 71 million Americans.
David Samson / The Forum
Cain is the care attendant for her son with autism. Medicaid helps pay for her son’s support services and health care, which are already hard to access in rural areas, she said. Her family moved from Park Rapids to Princeton to be closer to transitional care for her son, but with Medicaid changes, she is unsure how that facility will be affected.
“Cutting the Medicaid program is such a dangerous act, and it relates directly to our ability to thrive and make America healthy and make America great again,” Cain said.
Many in the group outside Fischbach’s office represented unions in various industries, including health care and education. They called for Fischbach to hold community meetings with constituents to discuss the next steps for Medicaid now that the bill has been signed into law.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates between
12 million and 17 million Americans
will lose health insurance because of the law. The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, is a nonpartisan group that works to inform Congress and its actions.
The law outlines stricter enrollment standards for Medicaid, including a work requirement for “able-bodied” recipients starting in 2027. Recipients will have to reapply for the program semiannually, twice as often as in the past.
Starting in 2028, people with incomes between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty level will have to pay copays of up to 5% of household earnings, according to the CBO.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services says
253,000 Minnesotans could lose coverage
in the next decade.
Rachel Rennicke, a Perham home health care worker paid through Medicaid, talked about family members, friends and neighbors who rely on Medicaid. With reduced Medicaid funding, families will not be able to afford to care for their children at home, and group homes and rural hospitals will be affected, she said.
David Samson / The Forum
“When this money is stripped away, Minnesota and every state across our country will have to decide who gets to live, who has to die,” Rennicke said. “They’re putting that on us in the states — how do we then make those choices?”
As the rally outside Fischbach’s office ended, protesters joined together in a chant of “health care for all.”
Fischbach was one of four representatives from Minnesota to vote in favor of the bill, joining Republican Reps. Brad Finstad, Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber.
Fischbach’s office did not immediately return a request for comment. In a press release after the House of Representatives passed the bill, she issued a statement.
“The House Ways and Means Committee has spent years listening to the American people about what is important to them, and the One Big Beautiful Bill delivers on those key issues,” Fischbach said. “It secures our border, unleashes energy dominance, and cuts wasteful spending.”
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, including Minnesota Reps. Angie Craig, Kelly Morrison, Betty McCollum and Ilhan Omar, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.
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