NEWS: Sanders Releases New Report Detailing Devastating Impact of Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” on Health Care in America

WASHINGTON, June 25 – As Senate Republicans attempt to ram through legislation to cut health care for 16 million Americans in order to give tax breaks to billionaires without a single hearing or substantive debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today released a new report detailing how Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” would create a national health care emergency, drawing on responses from more than 750 health care providers across 47 states and the District of Columbia.

Specifically, the report finds that the bill would increase the number of uninsured Americans in every state in the country and nearly double the uninsured rate in some states — including Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Washington. The legislation would kick 19 people off their health insurance for every millionaire household that receives a tax cut. The full state-by-state analysis of how uninsured rates will skyrocket available here.

“This report makes it abundantly clear that the reconciliation bill that Republicans are attempting to ram through the Senate this week would be a death sentence for working-class and low-income Americans throughout the country,” Sanders said. “Not only would this disastrous and deeply immoral bill throw 16 million people off of their health care and lead to over 50,000 unnecessary deaths every year, it would create a national health care emergency in America. It would devastate rural hospitals, community health centers and nursing homes throughout in our country and cause a massive spike in uninsured rates in red states and blue states alike. That’s not Bernie Sanders talking. That is precisely what doctors, health care providers and hospitals have told us.”

Earlier this month, Sanders, alongside every Democratic member of the HELP Committee, sent a letter to committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) urging him to schedule hearings with patients and health care providers to hear about the legislation’s disastrous impact on the health and well-being of the American people and markup this bill before it reaches the Senate floor for consideration. Cassidy declined.

In today’s report, Sanders asked health care providers across the country to share what the bill would mean for their patients. Here are some of the responses from health care providers:

• A doctor in Texas — where the uninsured rate will reach 20%, the highest in the U.S. — said, “These cuts will cause rural hospitals in Texas to close entirely. As a neurologist, I am terrified that the closest hospital for many rural folks may then be hours away. During an ischemic stroke, there is only 3 hours of precious time . . . the increased travel time may cause unnecessary cases of paralysis and death.”
• A doctor from Florida — where the uninsured rate will surge to almost 19% — said, “Plainly said, children will die as a result of these cuts. Hospitals will cut back on ICU doctors, doctors will leave because of salary cuts, critical ancillary services will be reduced, more medical students will avoid going into pediatric residencies.”
• A rural health group from Louisiana — where the uninsured rate will nearly double to over 12% — said, “Louisiana’s rural hospitals and healthcare providers are already operating on razor-thin margins, struggling to keep their doors open while serving some of our most medically vulnerable communities. In Louisiana, 38% of hospitals operate on negative margins and 27% are currently vulnerable to closure. Medicaid cuts would worsen these losses, putting more hospitals at risk of shutting down entirely.” Another doctor from Louisiana added: “If Medicaid is cut, my patients will die. I realize I am being dramatic. It is a dramatic situation.”
• A social worker from South Carolina — where the uninsured rate will reach over 13% — said, “These changes would dramatically increase the administrative burden on our care team. We would likely need to hire at least 1–2 full-time administrative staff just to track patient eligibility, navigate complex documentation requirements, and assist families with enrollment or appeals. This would divert already limited funding away from clinical care and impose new costs on our department.”
• A doctor working at a community health center in Missouri – where the uninsured rate will increase to over 10% — said, “We may not be able to keep the doors open. We would potentially have to stop caring for many of our patients.”
• A doctor from Ohio — where the uninsured rate will rise to over 9% — said, “If the proposed bill is passed and [my patients’] Medicaid insurance is cut, it doesn’t mean their asthma will go away. It will mean that in most cases they will not receive preventative care, and as a result, their asthma will worsen . . . . Worse yet, they would be seen in the emergency room more often and admitted to the hospital. This care is more expensive, and less effective, than preventative care, and some children will die of their asthma.”
• The CEO of a hospital in Idaho — where the uninsured rate will rise to over 10% — said, “Our margin last year was -31%, burning through cash to see patients, the majority of whom are on Medicare or Medicaid. If they lose Medicaid, we’ll still take care of them because that’s what we do, but the bills won't get paid.”

“We cannot allow Republicans to take health care away from 16 million Americans in order to pay for more tax breaks to billionaires,” Sanders concluded. “As the Ranking Member of the HELP Committee, I will do everything that I can to see that it is defeated. Health care must be a human right for all, not a privilege for the wealthy few.”

Read the report here.

Read estimates of the increase in uninsured rates by state here and below.