Delaware’s Congressional delegation met in Wilmington Monday to discuss fighting possible cuts to Medicaid.
Project 2025, a conservative agenda providing policy suggestions, envisions changes to Medicaid that lower and limit federal funding to the program, which covers roughly one in four Delawareans and nearly half of Delaware’s children.
A GOP-backed U.S. House plan calls for at least $880 billion in cuts, cuts Rep. Sarah McBride says put Medicaid at risk.
While Republicans haven’t reached a consensus on cuts yet, McBride said Project 2025 is the Trump administration’s roadmap, even if Republicans say that’s not true.
“They have said Medicaid is not on the chopping block, but I'm sorry, they are asking us not to believe our lying eyes,” McBride said. “There is simply no way for them to fulfill that resolution's charge without cutting Medicaid. That is the reality. That is the math.”
43% of births in Delaware are covered by Medicaid, according to the Division Chief of Obstetrics at Nemours Children’s and Christiana OB-GYN Margaret Chou.
Cuts to the program would have drastic and ugly effects, Chou said.
“One of the big wins that the Maternal Mortality Review Committee had was that in extending Medicaid out for the whole year postpartum, we reduced death,” Chou said. “There will be people who die. There are cancer survivors who count on Medicaid for their care, and we're going to leave them in the lurch.”
Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester said cuts to the program recommended by Project 2025 mirror earlier threats to the Affordable Care Act.
“But we did not let that happen,” Blunt Rochester said. “And it wasn't just the members in the House or the Senate. It was the people. It was the people who came to Washington D.C. and said, ‘You will not take the Affordable Care Act away from us.’”
Delaware’s federal delegation is working to sway Republican colleagues and encourage the public to voice their opposition. McBride added there are too many unknowns to set protections up ahead of time if Medicaid is cut.
“It would fall, as we talked about today, on state governments, hospitals, federally qualified health centers, local health care facilities to figure out how to grapple with the cuts,” McBride said.
Nancy Fan, a practicing OB-GYN and District 3 secretary for the American College OB-GYN, said Delaware’s Black and brown community will feel the brunt of cuts.
“There will be increased Black and brown mortality and morbidity. What about their families? Who's taking care of those children? Who's helping those moms out, right?” Fan said. “Who's gonna do all the work that they currently do, because they can, because they get to be healthy? I think people don't realize that certain communities will be more highly impacted, but it affects everybody.”
McBride, Blunt Rochester and Sen. Chris Coons all pledged to work against cuts to the program.
