The U.S. healthcare system is on the brink, and congressional Republicans are pushing it closer to the edge.
Last summer, nearly every GOP lawmaker sided with the Trump administration to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—a law that strips funding from healthcare for working families while showering billionaires with tax breaks. This will deepen a crisis at every level of our healthcare system.
Emergency rooms aren’t just the first stop for the sick—they are the pulse of the nation’s health. When the tectonic plates of healthcare policies shift, we feel every tremor and aftershock. We see the effects on our patients, their families, primary care providers, and doctors from every medical specialty.
The warning signs have been mounting for years: nationwide nurse shortages, fewer primary care providers, overflowing hospitals, and ERs stretched to the breaking point. COVID slammed the system further, filling beds with sicker patients than ever before. Even today, hospitals have not fully recovered. Patients still wait hours—or even days—for care, often in hallways.
And now, the GOP’s policies threaten to make this nightmare even worse. By slashing Medicaid and letting key tax credits expire, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act jeopardizes access to coverage. Unless Congress acts, up to 15 million Americans, including small-business owners and working families, risk losing their health insurance by 2034. Millions more will see their insurance premiums more than double.
The choice it forces on families is brutal: pay for insurance or put food on the table, cover rent or fill prescriptions. Our friends, family, and neighbors will have to delay care, forgo seeing a doctor, or skip medications because they can’t afford them. People will seek care later, get sicker, and, tragically, suffer or die unnecessarily.
This is not just a Medicaid problem. With Republicans controlling both the White House and Congress, rural hospitals and clinics are shutting down, leaving even insured patients with longer, potentially life-threatening trips for care. Without access to primary care or insurance, more people will flood ERs, further compounding overcrowding and wait times.
Medical emergencies don’t discriminate. Delays in care will make treatable conditions life-threatening in red and blue communities alike.
These cuts are not minor tweaks—they are dangerous lacerations to the safety net. But the solution is clear: protect and expand coverage, invest in safe staffing, and ensure community hospitals remain open and ready, where people actually live. The alternative is a nation forced to gamble with life and death—and too many will lose.
