Jamila Headley (center), executive director of Be A Hero, discusses proposed health care cuts during Durham rally. (Photo: Greg Childress)
Cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, would devastate her young family, Eshawney Gaston, the mother of three, including a one-year-old with sickle cell disease, told NC Newsline outside of Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham on Monday.
Currently out of work, Gaston, who has worked mostly retail and restaurant jobs, said she uses both benefits and couldn’t afford to pay for health care or feed her family without them.
Eshawney Gaston (Photo: Greg Childress)“I’m here for the help,” Gaston said. “If Medicaid is going to help, if food stamps are going to help, then I’m going to use it. I don’t use that stuff because I want to, it’s because I have to. I can’t afford it on these low wage jobs.”
Gaston, a member of the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), later told the crowd that gathered at the health center that she is delaying medical treatment because she can’t afford the portion of the bill she would have to pay. “Who can afford to do that?” Gaston asked. “Rent is a $1,000. Which one am I going to do, go to the doctor or pay my rent?”
Low-wage earners desperately need the help Medicaid and SNAP provide, Gaston said.
“We’re the ones picking up your trash,” she said. “We’re the ones working in your fast food restaurants. We’re the ones in your stores. We make this world go around and I don’t feel like y’all [members of Congress] understand because y’all don’t have to be out here on the ground. You can go sleep in your beds while I’m out here trying to figure out a place to live because [even] affordable rent is too high.”
Gaston was one of three dozen people who came to Lincoln Health Center on a hot and humid June afternoon to protest proposed cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Lincoln provides comprehensive health care to more than 36,000 patients each year, many of whom are low-income and uninsured.
Pleading with senators
Monday’s rally comes ahead of a larger one scheduled for Wednesday in Raleigh, where activists, union members and supporters plan to march to Sen. Thom Tillis’ and Ted Budds’ offices to demand they vote against President Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which contains the controversial Medicaid and SNAP cuts. The bill has been approved by the House and is now before the Senate.
“The vast majority of people on Medicaid are working and their [the Trump administration] idea that they’ll make things more efficient is just nonsense,” Rob Stephens, a chief organizer for the Poor People’s Campaign of North Carolina and its sibling organization, Repairers of the Breach, said during a brief interview with NC Newsline.
Rev. Rob Stephens speaks during a press conference in Raleigh last year. (Photo: Greg Childress)Stephens aded: “They [the Trump administration] are literally going to cut health care to people who qualify for it so that they can give tax cuts to billionaires and fund ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] at unprecedented levels. It will be the largest increase to ICE funding — it’s almost unlimited because they’re already busting the bank.”
Here’s what protesters said is at stake if Trump’s budget bill becomes laws:
255,000 people in North Carolina could lose Medicaid coverage due to new requirements designed to make it harder to get benefits. Another 470,000 North Carolinians could lose health insurance if Congress lets ACA (Affordable Care Act) subsidies expire. Medicaid cuts will cost North Carolina $27 billion over the next decade and cut 35,500 jobs in 2026. Changes to how healthcare providers are paid could cause cuts to programs, services, and healthcare access for low-income people. With more uninsured patients, safety net healthcare providers like community health centers and hospitals will struggle to stay open. North Carolina will lose $700 million in SNAP food assistance, at a time of rising food prices.The proposed $800 billion cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years would be the largest to the federal program that provides health care to low-income adults, children, pregnant women, seniors and people with disabilities, said Jamila Headley, executive director of Be A Hero, a nonprofit that fights for health justice.
Headley said she asked a group of USSW workers Monday morning how many had been uninsured, unable to afford their medication or hesitated to take a child to the doctor because they couldn’t afford it and every one in the room raised a hand for every question.
“They’re planning to make our health care system even worse,” Headley said. “Across the country, due to cuts to Medicaid and not extending the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, we’re talking about 16 million people would lose coverage.”
In North Carolina, Headley said nearly 700,000 people could lose health care coverage if the Trump bill is approved.
“People in North Carolina fought hard for years to expand Medicaid and won it just a year and a half ago, and in that year and a half, you’ve had historic numbers of people coming on to Medicaid, 650,000 people added to Medicaid,” Headley said. “We’re talking about erasing that progress if this bill passes.”
Gov. Stein weighs in
Gov. Josh Stein has sent letters to Tillis and Budd to share his concerns about the impact of proposed cuts to Medicaid and the SNAP on North Carolinians who receive the benefits.
Stein said that under the U.S. House reconciliation bill and impending expiration of health care marketplace subsidies, nearly a half-million North Carolinians could lose their health care.
Gov. Josh Stein (Photo: Greg Childress)The governor said recent modeling estimates show that 255,000 North Carolinians are at risk of losing coverage under the Medicaid provisions alone in the House bill and a Kaiser Family Foundation study projected that the combination of Medicaid and Marketplace changes in the House Bill would increase the number of uninsured North Carolinians to an estimated 470,000 if Marketplace subsidies expire at the end of 2025. Marketplace subsidies help individuals and families afford health insurance purchased through the Health Insurance Marketplace.
“North Carolina has taken bipartisan steps to strengthen our health system and protect working families,” Stein said in a news release. “I urge the Senate to continue that progress by opposing these unprecedented cuts to SNAP and Medicaid that would leave North Carolinians, especially those in rural communities, without food assistance and health care.”
Last month, Stein noted in a similar letter to Congress that SNAP benefits help 1.4 million North Carolinians put food on the table. If the federal cuts are enacted, he said, the state would be would forced to spend more than $700 million to continue current benefits.
In addition, Stein said, SNAP benefits are an economic driver that adds nearly $2.8 billion to the state’s economy and supports farmers, grocers and retailers.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Durham protesters demand Sens. Budd, Tillis vote against Trump’s budget bill )
Also on site :