Last week, Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) hosted a roundtable with seven Northwest Washington state community members about how the Medicaid cuts in Republicans’ Big Ugly Law will impact their families. You can watch a recording of the roundtable HERE.
“We’re talking about friends and neighbors who will be losing health care, not other people,” said Rep. Larsen in his opening remarks. “This treatment is not accidental. This law will hurt working families.”
“With the Medicaid cuts in the Big Ugly Bill, where are these unfortunate, disabled people, unable to care for themselves, supposed to go?” said Jeannie Dowd, a Mukilteo resident. “The facilities continue to close and only get worse with this horrendous bill. Not only is this terrible for them, but their families suffer too. We all want the best for our family members and sometimes they need more care than we can provide. We need more places to take care of them, not less.” Jeannie Dowd was invited to attend the roundtable after reaching out to Rep. Larsen’s office in April to share her experience as a caretaker for her brother after he suffered a traumatic brain injury.
“This ruse of weeding out waste, fraud and abuse is just a smokescreen,” said Courtney Criss, a Leadership and Advocacy Manager at Arc of Snohomish County. “It’s not a thing! It is so hard to be eligible for DDA and Medicaid. I don’t know how you could fraud the system, honestly.” Courtney Criss was invited to attend the roundtable after meeting Rep. Larsen when he visited the Arc of Snohomish County in March. She is the mother to four children, two of whom have Down syndrome.
Kathryn Sutton, a self-employed Bellingham resident, spoke about the Big Ugly Law failing to extend the premium tax credit (PTC), which reduces the cost of insurance plans purchased from the marketplace: “[My husband and I] have been fiscally conservative all our life. We don’t have any debt. We are working hard to get our kids through college. And to be in a position I can’t even afford basic insurance… it’s frustrating.” Kathryn Sutton was invited to attend the roundtable after sharing her concerns via Rep. Larsen’s ‘share your story’ webpage. In her submission to the ‘share your story’ webpage, she said: “And why are we in this position? So Jeff Bezos can get a big tax cut. We need the PTC, and Jeff can give up some of his tax cut to pay for it.”
“Some of my clients… who are they going to fall back on? Some of them don’t have family. Some of them don’t have community. They tell me ‘if I don’t come to my appointment, if something happens to me, you’re the only person on the planet who will know…’” said Sandra Carrier, an Everett resident and psychiatric nurse practitioner in private practice who treats patients with Medicaid. “Because of this law, my ability to provide for my family in the practice structure that I chose is going to potentially be removed from me. At my age, with my growing disabilities, what am I going to do?” Sandra Carrier was invited to attend the roundtable after sharing her concerns via Rep. Larsen’s ‘share your story’ webpage.
“This is truly trickle down. Trickle down is pain. It’s not economics, it’s pain,” said Rep. Larsen. “Knowing these messages are people, they’re not just messages, they are from people… It will help me make the case as we try to rebuild.”
As of today, 670 Northwest Washington state residents have shared how the Big Ugly Law will impact them via Rep. Larsen’s ‘share your story’ webpage. 32.2% of responses are from Snohomish County residents, 27.6% are from Whatcom County residents, 19.4% are from Skagit County residents, 16.6% are from Island County residents, and 4.2% are from San Juan County residents.
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