GOP bill in Congress would devastate rural health care and threaten coverage for hundreds of thousands of Oregonians on the Oregon Health Plan
SALEM — At a pivotal Oregon Senate Health Care Committee hearing June 3, rural hospital leaders, nurses, local providers, and families who rely on the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) issued an urgent warning: the deeply unpopular and unwanted Medicaid cuts being advanced by the Republicans in Congress would devastate rural health care and rip away coverage from the people who need it most.
The other strong message: it’s not too late to stop these cuts.
“These rushed and reckless cuts are about one thing: ripping health care away from working people so billionaires can get another tax break,” said Melissa Unger, executive director of SEIU. “The home care workers I represent are terrified — not just for their patients, but for themselves and their families. They’re holding the health care system together while Republicans in Congress try to tear it apart. But it’s not too late. The U.S. Senate must reject these cuts to Medicaid and offer up real solutions to deal with rising health care costs that are hurting working families.”
The hearing, convened by the Senate, examined the impact of legislation recently narrowly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. That bill — now awaiting Senate action — includes sweeping Medicaid cuts projected by the Congressional Budget Office to terminate coverage for at least 8.6 million Americans. In Oregon, OHA predicted that hundreds of thousands of Oregonians could lose coverage, with rural communities hit the hardest. And the cuts could cost Oregon of $718 Million to $1.4 billion per year — or $8 billion to $16 billion over the next 10 years — to providers and for reimbursable services.
Andrea Carr of Sprague River, who lives in Oregon’s Second Congressional District, shared powerful testimony about how OHP coverage allows her to care for her adult daughter with autism at home.
“These proposed cuts are not just numbers in a spreadsheet. They are life and death for families like mine,” Carr said. “If Medicaid is stripped away, there is no plan B. Oregonians would lose access to the care that keeps our families together. We need the U.S. Senate to stop this bill before it goes further.”
The proposed bill would unnecessarily increase bureaucracy and red tape for low-income Oregonians to stay on coverage and increase their costs. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the burden of work reporting requirements and twice-yearly redeterminations will force millions of eligible people off the rolls and further strain already overwhelmed rural providers.
Testimony came from frontline nurses, community clinics, hospital executives, and state and nonprofit health leaders including the Oregon Health Authority, CareOregon, Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, Central City Concern, and the Hospital Association of Oregon. Many emphasized that the proposed cuts would break the rural health care infrastructure that Oregon has spent decades building.
Oregon’s Medicaid program — one of the most successful in the country—now covers 1.4 million residents, including 70% of children and 40% of all residents in Rep. Cliff Bentz’s district.
“Proposed federal changes will hit rural hospitals the hardest,” said Dan Grigg, president and CEO of Wallowa Memorial Hospital in rural northeast Oregon. “Service loss in rural areas is more than an inconvenience — it can be life threatening. When patients must travel farther, they face greater risks, especially in emergencies, and must find transportation and lodging to get care elsewhere.”
About 34% of Wallowa County residents rely on Medicaid.
"Cuts to medicaid from this disastrous legislation will close hospitals and clinics in rural Oregon and drive caregivers away from the bedside," said Tamie Cline, an RN from Hermiston and president of the Oregon Nurses Association. "This means that Oregonians living in rural communities will delay care and have to drive for hours before they even get to the doors of an emergency room. By the time they reach a nurse, treatable infections will become septic and low-risk pregnancies will become an emergency C-section. Patients will become sicker, and people will die."
Despite national opposition, including 76% of voters in a recent KFF poll, Republicans in Congress passed the bill with no time for public scrutiny and no plan to replace the coverage they aim to cut.
“We need this bill to be stopped in the Senate, but if it goes back to the House, we have a chance in Oregon for Rep. Cliff Bentz to vote no and kill the bill,” said Carr. “This is our moment to speak with moral clarity. Protecting Medicaid is not just a policy choice — it’s about protecting the health and survival of our communities.”
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