PHOENIX – This weekend, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) hosted a roundtable discussion with leaders of healthcare organizations to examine the potentially devastating cuts to Medicaid and their far-reaching impact on Arizona families and health care providers. This comes after Senator Gallego has been hearing directly from Arizonans on how they would be affected by these cuts.
See coverage below:
On the Airwaves
Reporter: “Concern is growing for healthcare leaders gathered at a roundtable with Senator Ruben Gallego on Saturday morning discussing the future of Medicaid.” […]
Senator Gallego: “There is no way you can honestly be doing your job and do these cuts to Medicaid to the poorest of Arizonans. These are people that are actually working Arizonans, families, children, people that are particularly, acutely sick that can’t get coverage. And to do it to give tax cuts to people who are doing very well right now.”
Reporter: “Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego is warning of the potential Medicaid cuts by the Republican-controlled Congress. Gallego led a roundtable discussion today in Phoenix with representatives of healthcare associations, employees, and insurers. Republicans are pushing for cuts to Medicaid – that’s the health insurance program for low-income Americans – to help pay for an extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. Gallego said deep cuts to Medicaid would result in job losses statewide. More than one in four Arizona residents are covered by the state’s Medicaid program.”
Senator Gallego: “You will see hospitals shutting down, you will see practices moving away, you will see people using the emergency room as their primary care doctor, and you will [see] every Arizonans’ premiums probably go up because of this very short-sighted decision.”
Senator Gallego: “Those working, poor people, that are off health insurance, are going to end up going to emergency rooms, and we’re going to end up paying even more as taxpayers because we’re not going to deny people care at emergency rooms.”
Senator Gallego: “[Congressional Republicans’] plan is going to add $4 trillion to the deficit. So even with their cuts, proposed cuts to Medicaid, they’re going to end up ballooning our deficit even further. And if they wanted to do something, there are significantly smarter ways to do it. but the worst way you could do it is to cut poor people, kick them off health insurance, and then turn around and give the richest of Americans a tax cut.”
In Print
Arizona Republic: ‘It will increase human suffering’: Health-care community gives dark warnings about Medicaid cuts
[Stephanie Innes, 3/3/25]
U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego said he will be working to make Arizona residents and congressional leaders aware of the human suffering that Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts could cause.
Gallego, a Democrat who began his six-year Senate term in January, heard from more than a half-dozen community health leaders on Saturday about the toll that cuts to the federal Medicaid program could take in Arizona, where the program enrolls 2 million people. […]
Gallego pledged, after hearing the comments, to do more outreach about the issue, including in rural Arizona where funding reductions to the government health insurance program could hit especially hard. It’s important for Arizonans to know what’s at stake, he said. […]
“It’s a very narrow majority in the House and a very narrow majority in the Senate, and I think that with enough public push, we can limit the damage that they could potentially do to Arizona’s families,” Gallego said.
“Right now, it looks like this is first going to go through the House of Representatives; it’s been made very clear that they are going to go with a House approach. That budget resolution says they are going to cut $880 billion, and the only way they can really cut is from Medicaid.”
KJZZ: Sen. Ruben Gallego joins health care experts to push back on potential Medicaid cuts
[Ignacio Ventura, 3/3/25]
U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego met with health care leaders in Phoenix Saturday to address massive budget cuts pushed by Republicans that could threaten Medicaid. […]
“This is on the chopping blocks. And if Medicaid is cut, hospitals will close, people will lose coverage at the end of the day, not just the Medicaid population because we saw this when we expanded Medicaid, but everyone gets affected up and up and down the line,” Gallego said. […]
Gallego said rural Arizonans would bear the brunt of the impact.
He criticized President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, saying they want to make cuts to benefit their friends and fellow billionaires.
Gallego says he and others will hold town halls throughout the state in an effort to save Medicaid.