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DETROIT FREE PRESS: Debbie Dingell: Trump’s Medicaid cuts will kill Americans | Opinion

The fight to protect and expand Medicare and Medicaid is personal to me, and I’m deeply concerned about the current state of health care in our country.

My late husband, U.S. Rep. John Dingell, presided over the House of Representatives that approved Medicare in 1965, and he was by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s side when he signed these lifesaving programs into law 60 years ago today. That day was an important start on a journey, as it culminated decades of work that his father had begun before him and he carried on. It changed the very fabric of our country and how we care for our citizens.

I don’t think they could have imagined today, when Republicans in Congress have decimated these programs they fought so hard for ― all in service to their ultra-wealthy donors.

I've served in Congress since 2015, and one of my top priorities has been to build on their efforts and continue expanding access to health care for all Americans. But Congress, and the Trump administration, have just taken a sledgehammer to more than half a century of work.

Health care is a right, not a privilege. No one should have to worry about whether or not they can afford a doctor’s office visit, life-saving medicine, a critical surgery or to go to the emergency room in a crisis.

Not only are we the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee all of its citizens health care, we just enacted the biggest cuts to health coverage in history through President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill, which Republicans passed without a single vote from Democrats.

An estimated 17 million people could lose their health care as a direct result. And premiums for everyone will go up. Without enhanced premium tax credits for ACA marketplace plans, more healthy people will drop coverage, making the risk pool sicker on average and more expensive to insure.

Medicaid costs less, does more

Investing in public health is not only good for individuals, it’s good for the economy.

Republicans’ claims that Medicaid is full of waste, fraud, and abuse are simply untrue. The fact is Medicaid coverage is less expensive, both for recipients and our country. Medicaid costs 45% less than private insurance, and provides more comprehensive benefits than private insurance with significantly lower out-of-pocket costs for patients.

The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, yet consistently experiences worse health outcomes. This includes lower life expectancies and higher rates of chronic disease. And despite the high spending, we have serious disparities, affordability issues and gaps in coverage.

People will die because of these cuts

Medicaid is the largest single payer of pregnancy-related care in America, covering more than 40% of births in the US. Maternity care and newborn care are absolutely essential to the wellbeing of our children and families. Prenatal and early childhood health care build the foundation for the rest of a child’s life. Stripping this care away means stripping opportunities from children the moment they are born.

Without Medicaid funding, hospitals will close, leaving rural communities in a lurch. Emergency departments that are already swamped will be under even more pressure. Our strained health care system will be burdened further. Let me be clear: People will die as a direct result of this law.

This is not the direction we should be moving.

Our nation, our values

As a nation, our values are judged by how we help our most vulnerable citizens. Whether our neighbors who are struggling financially or growing older in age, these programs have helped millions of Americans. During the historic COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed, with devastating clarity, how access to health care is a matter of life and death. Too many people already didn’t have access to the care they needed before this law was passed, and now this crisis will rapidly worsen. We must not only restore this funding to Medicaid, but we must also expand it. Anything less is a failure for the millions of families who depend on it.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt observed in 1944 that we ought to implement an “Economic Bill of Rights that included both the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to enjoy good health” and the “right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.”

We need to learn from history.

It’s demoralizing to feel like we’ve taken a step (or a great leap) backwards, when we’ve been working hard for years to inch forward. But we can’t lose hope, and we can’t give up. The fight to guarantee quality health care for every American is now more important than ever. Health care is not and should not be the privilege of a wealthy few. It is the right of all Americans. And those of us who can fight for the most vulnerable among us have a responsibility to do so.