ICYMI: Congressman Johnson Holds Press Conference on GOP Healthcare, Medicaid Cuts
STONECREST, GA – On Thursday, Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04) held a press conference at a senior care facility in South DeKalb to highlight the dangerous consequences of House Republicans’ Rip Off reconciliation budget legislation and its drastic cuts to Medicaid.
Joined by Nadine Johnson, Director of Care One Franchise, Inc. (COFI), residents and family members who receive care at COFI and Protect Our Care Georgia State Director, Joe Binns, the Congressman raised the alarm about the pending cuts to the social safety net for the poor and elderly.
“President Trump and House Republicans promised they would lower costs for everyday Americans,” Rep. Johnson said. “They lied. Instead, they just announced a new push to cut Medicaid and take health care away from kids, parents, and seniors. The Trump-Musk-House Republican budget includes hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and food assistance for kids, seniors, and veterans.”
Nadine Johnson (no relation), whose residents depend on Medicaid to help receive her services, said cuts to Medicaid would deeply impact the community.
“If we’re not able to access the supplemental funding from Medicaid that we receive now, we’d have to close our business,” she said. “And that would mean many more seniors and disabled individuals would be facing homelessness. It would wreak havoc in our communities.”
“The consequences of cuts to Medicaid would touch nearly every household in America including people in this room today,” said Binns. “Medicaid provides health care to over 72 million people -- six in 10 nursing home residents, 30 million children, 9 million adults with disabilities, and 14 million adults with mental illness. If they slash Medicaid, it will wreak havoc on state budgets and services. Rural Hospitals will close and the Americans who rely on them will be left behind. America’s skyrocketing mental health crisis will be exacerbated, and the nation’s maternal health crisis will get significantly worse.”
From the Congressman's full statement:
Co-President Trump and his MAGA Republican allies who control Congress have proposed another tax cut for Trump and his billionaire buddies. They propose $2-4 trillion in permanent tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, and they plan to pay for it by cutting Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and SNAP benefits for women and their babies.
This is straight up war on poor and regular working people, which will raise the cost of everything — including healthcare and medicine. It will also drive nursing homes and personal care homes out of business. These are places and people who we depend on to take care of our elderly, many of whom are suffering from dementia. MAGA wants to gut vital programs like Medicaid that help people survive, so that they can give billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg another big fat tax cut.
With that, I’m pleased to be here with my constituents to highlight the human side of all these drastic cuts. It’s folks like Nadine, her residents and their families who will be impacted the most. With that, I’m pleased to introduce Nadine Johnson, the director of Care One Franchise, Inc., where we are today – Nadine.