Mass. governor, legislators concerned about possible Medicaid cuts

REVERE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ is now making its way through Congress after passing the House of Representatives late last week. However, as it heads to the Senate, a group of liberal Democrats from Massachusetts is warning about what they call devastating impacts to healthcare.

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy, alongside U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, address an audience gathered Tuesday afternoon at a healthcare center in Revere and sounded the alarm on what they called impending Medicaid cuts. “We’re here today because the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress are trying to decimate healthcare in America. It’s going to hurt people and that’s why we’re here because people got to understand what’s going on,” Healey said.

The Massachusetts Democrats claimed, if passed, President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ would take away health care from Massachusetts children, families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities. “This bill would cut Medicaid, gut the Affordable Care Act, and slash food assistance. If it passed the Senate, this bill will rip healthcare away from 14 million people,” Warren added.

However, recent numbers from the Congressional Budget Office seem to disagree and concluded that the bill would mean 8.6 million fewer Americans would have health insurance, not 14 million. Still, with so many at jeopardy of losing coverage, the GOP is quick to claim the cuts will only target “waste, fraud, and abuse” in sprawling federal programs. Acknowledging the overall $1.5 trillion in federal spending cuts, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the nation has to address its massive spending and its massive debt. “We’re limited government conservatives. We want to limit the size and scope of the government and make it work more efficiently and effectively,” he said.

Part of the bill would also lock in the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year. They are cuts the non-partisan group The Tax Foundation said reduced average tax burdens for taxpayers across the income spectrum, but Markey disagreed and claimed it will only benefit the wealthiest among us. “The rich will get richer in our nation and the sick will get sicker. That’s what this bill is all about,” he explained.

Right now, the reconciliation package, officially titled the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ is headed to the Senate.