Opinion: The ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill Act’ puts the health of everyone in Michigan at risk

Health care experts call on Congress to stand against harmful Medicaid cuts. 

Providing high quality care to patients is the goal of everyone in healthcare. From the people who keep our hospitals clean to our nurses, doctors and administrators. We all work together to ensure people receive the care they need. 

The ability to provide the best care to Michiganders is at risk. The current bill making its way through Congress is a danger to every hospital in Michigan and the people we serve every day. 

This bill makes massive cuts to Medicaid. It will eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars for medical care for the most vulnerable people, including seniors, veterans and children. Currently, 2.4 million Michiganders – a quarter of our population – rely on Medicaid for health care coverage. 

This bill would leave more than half a million Michigan residents without any coverage at all. As health systems and healthcare providers, we know this will have a huge impact on our ability to treat the most vulnerable among us. 

But it isn’t just people on Medicaid whose care will suffer as a result of these massive cuts. Everyone in Michigan will see higher costs to subsidize care for all, alongside potentially lower quality care if this bill passes in its current form. 

Currently, people with Medicaid coverage can visit primary care doctors for preventative and other non-emergency care. If this bill passes, and families lose Medicaid coverage, they’ll be forced to rely on emergency care much more often. That means longer wait times and strained resources in our emergency departments. That affects everyone. 

That’s not all. Hospitals like mine rely on Medicaid for much of our funding. When these funds are cut, we are faced with difficult decisions about how to function with significantly fewer resources. 

Health systems and hospitals, especially in rural Michigan with high Medicaid populations may be forced to reduce services or close entirely. 

It’s not just Medicaid coverage that this bill threatens. It seeks to eliminate subsidies that help many families afford health insurance. Families in Michigan could see costs for their health care premiums go up by thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. 

That’s the future we’re facing: higher costs for lower-quality services. As health care providers, we are gravely concerned. 

The question we all face now is: what can we do? It’s not too late to act, and you can make a difference in whether this bill passes. Polling has shown that people who hear about the cuts in this bill – overwhelmingly oppose it. Michigan’s members of Congress know this, but they need to hear from their constituents today. They need to know we are watching. And we need to demand that these concerns are heard. 

We are health care providers. We do this work because we care about our patients. We want to focus on providing the best possible care for them but need your help in opposition to the current bill. 

We cannot ignore legislation like this that puts our patients at risk. We urge Michigan’s members of Congress to stand up against a bill that targets the most vulnerable Michiganders and takes away their health care coverage. We urge them to stand up against a bill that raises costs and endangers services for every person in the state.

Related: 7 Michigan Republicans could help Trump gut health care for 500,000 Michiganders