| After gutting access to health care, forcing premiums to skyrocket, and raising costs on everyday goods, the disastrous records of Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan, and Scott Perry are coming back to bite them.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that “as Democrats look to flip four key swing congressional districts in Pennsylvania, they’re centering their message on healthcare and the cost of living” — and Republicans are struggling to defend their cost-spiking, care-cutting record.
Fitzpatrick, Mackenzie, Bresnahan, and Perry all declined to comment, because they know their record is indefensible.
Read more from the Inquirer for yourself:
Philadelphia Inquirer: How Democrats in four key Pa. districts plan to use Medicaid cuts to win back Congress
As the midterm elections approach, Democrats will be telling voters that Republicans are to blame for problems with health care, now and in 2027, when Medicaid cuts go into effect.
- As Democrats look to flip four key swing congressional districts in Pennsylvania, they’re centering their message on healthcare and the cost of living.
- Part of that message will involve reminding voters that congressional Republicans approved $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over 10 years to help pay for Trump’s signature tax cuts, potentially eliminating health coverage for 300,000 Pennsylvanians, according to state estimates.
- The cuts to the popular entitlement program won’t take effect until January 2027, two months after the midterm election…But Democrats want to make sure voters understand that pain postponed is still pain.
- Throughout the next nine months, party leaders say, Democrats will look to broaden Medicaid eligibility, cap drug costs, close gaps in rural healthcare, and fight for reproductive rights. They will also be pledging to address a spike in insurance premiums by restoring enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, a COVID-era policy which expired at the end of last year.
- Mackenzie, who voted for Trump’s signature law, has more than 17,500 people in his district who could lose Medicaid coverage.
- And across the four collar counties, a projected 40,000 people will be affected, including nearly 11,000 in U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s district.
- Neither Fitzpatrick nor Mackenzie’s campaigns responded to a request for comment on the upcoming Medicaid cuts.
- Spokespeople for Pennsylvania’s two other swing-district Republicans, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Scott Perry, also did not comment. Bresnahan and Perry have nearly 22,000 and nearly 19,000 residents, respectively, in their districts at risk of losing coverage.
- Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) under the new law already began in January for around 46,000 people in the state — many of them are likely residents who will also lose Medicaid.
|
