Photos courtesy of Byrum & Fisk Advocacy Communications
FLINT, Mich. – Congresswoman Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-08) rallied alongside local health care advocates, experts and patients October 19 for the Protect Our Care’s “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” bus tour, calling out those who are taking a wrecking ball to our healthcare system.
McDonald Rivet pointed out that working families and seniors have been paying the price all year after those who are out-of-touch gutted their healthcare.
She added: “Now, premiums are about to go even higher in 2027. Higher costs mean more people are losing their coverage, it’s harder to see a doctor and families’ budgets are being pushed to the breaking point. It’s unacceptable, and we will keep fighting until Congress actually does something to lower health care costs.”
“Cuts to Medicaid create huge gaps in care that affect all of us,” said Kristen Young, a substance use disorder and mental health professional.
Young added: “Safety net programs like Medicaid provide an economic payoff: by helping people stay healthy so they can work and care for their families, by stabilizing individuals with substance use disorders or mental health conditions, and by keeping communities more stable. Cuts to healthcare put people at risk, they don’t save money, and in fact will cost all of us one way or another, in the near term and into the future.”
Across the country, hard-working families are fed up with the growing healthcare crisis after more than $1 trillion was slashed from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits were gutted to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. During the event, Michiganders impacted by these cuts to healthcare called on lawmakers to enact commonsense healthcare solutions, including restoring tax credits to lower insurance premiums, reversing devastating Medicaid cuts, expanding Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for more drugs and extending those lower prices to all Americans with insurance, penalizing drug companies that raise prices faster than inflation, and protecting patients from high costs by extending the annual $2,000 out-of-pocket cap and the $35 insulin co-pay cap to people with private coverage.
“Nine years ago, I walked into the doctor’s office with a nagging cough and walked out with a stage four cancer diagnosis,” said Laura, a Michigan native, cancer survivor and healthcare advocate.
Packard added: “Luckily, I had good insurance that paid for the chemotherapy and radiation I needed to survive. But I’m sick of watching Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress demolish our healthcare system. Lawmakers need to restore the tax credits that keep premiums affordable, reverse these devastating Medicaid cuts, and make sure people like me can actually afford to survive. Cancer doesn’t wait, and neither should Congress.”
A member of Congresswoman Kristen McDonald Rivet’s team pointed out families should be receiving rate notices for 2027 in the coming days, and unfortunately can expect to see a significant jump.
The “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” bus tour also visited Warren the same day and continued to Lansing and Kalamazoo, and then goes to Wisconsin on Wednesday.
