A crowd of mothers, caregivers and children dressed as bees entered the Hart Senate Office building on the morning of June 25 to call out Republican senators, who just advanced a budget reconciliation bill that would drastically reduce the number of people eligible for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Led by MomsRising, the group shared a ‘storybook’ with all 53 Republican senators detailing how this budget will harm mothers, children and others. They were joined by caregivers in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which spent the week on Capitol Hill protesting the Republican-led budget reconciliation bill.
“Our theme today is to stop the Big Bad BEE-trayal of families, because the cuts will ‘sting’ families,” said Felicia Burnett, national director for storytelling innovations and healthcare at MomsRising, explaining the bumblebee costumes MomsRising wore at the protest. “We have found that a little bit of humor is the best way to break through a partisan mindset.”
“My son was a chemo baby. He started chemotherapy at 6 weeks old, and Medicaid literally saved his life,” Burnett added. “I’ve dedicated my career to advocating for Medicaid, and I’m here speaking up for families who aren’t able to be here.”
Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill seeks to cut nearly $800 billion in Medicaid funding in what would be the largest cut since the program was instituted in 1965. The reconciliation bill’s purported goal is to preserve tax cuts while significantly increasing funding for mass deportation.
The majority of American voters do not support the bill’s provisions: Only 10 percent support decreasing Medicaid funding. A greater proportion of women than men oppose the bill: 58 percent of women disagree with the bill and only 21 percent of women support it, compared to 47 percent of men opposing the bill and 34 percent of men supporting it.
To achieve such seismic cuts, the bill implements an 20-hour-a-week work requirement for ‘able-bodied’ adults to receive Medicaid and SNAP. The bill also requires most parents of older children to work for their child to receive SNAP benefits.
Even those who should qualify would have benefits cut if they cannot quickly prove a disability, 20-hour-a-week work status or other qualifying factor. These work requirements are expected to have an outsized effect on women, especially mothers, caregivers, disabled women, women of color, rural women and women from low-income backgrounds. These requirements place older, female caregivers most at risk, according to the 19th.
According to North Carolina Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch, the bill deliberately aims to strip working-class Americans of their healthcare through deceptive tactics.
“This isn’t a ‘work’ requirement. It’s a paperwork requirement designed to strip people of care for missing a deadline, filling out the wrong form, or getting caught in a system that’s intentionally confusing,” she said. “People will lose coverage—not because they didn’t work, but because they couldn’t navigate a maze built to make them fail.”
An estimated 24 million women rely on Medicaid to access healthcare, with over half being women of color. Medicaid covers more than 40 percent of all births in the country, and about 37 percent of those enrolled in the program are children.
According to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates, these work reporting requirements would cause at least 10.9 million more people to go without healthcare, and another 3 million would no longer qualify for food stamps.
Additionally, the bill limits the impact of the child tax-credit, capping credit refunds at $1400 per qualifying child, down from $1700. This reduces benefits for America’s lowest-income parents.
Tax provisions in the budget bill would also place rural hospitals at serious risk of devastating funding cuts.
Hear Rural Caregivers Medicaid Stories: ‘Just Because We’re Not Upper-Class Does Not Mean That We Do Not Deserve to Live’
Andrea Carr, SEIU member and caregiver for her disabled daughter, says Medicaid cuts would “devastate” her family and community in rural Oregon.
“Without Medicaid, there is no care for her,” Carr said, referring to her daughter. “And that’s terrifying. I’m really wondering: How are we going to make it without these Medicaid dollars? And she also receives SNAP benefits, that’s what puts food on her plate.”
“I have a set number of hours that I work as a care provider for her, and Medicaid dollars pay for that,” Carr added, tearful. “So I’m looking at losing my home, her healthcare, her food. And that’s what brought me out today.”
“My friends, my family, my church members and my neighbors are all on Medicaid,” said Nadia Chisnell, SEIU member and caregiver for her mother. “I live in a rural community, so we are really praying that what’s already a struggling system will not, now, be taken away from us.”
Without Medicaid, Chisnell said her mother’s medications would cost thousands of dollars. “If we don’t have Medicaid to help cover the cost, we can’t pay for it. She will die.”
Chisnell says her sister, who is a disabled mother, also relies on Medicaid. “She has a baby that’s only a year old, and without Medicaid, she could not be a successful mother for her baby.”
“We’re going to the Senate building, the Capitol, the airport, the White House, all the surrounding spaces where these elected officials are, that have in their hands the opportunity to either help us succeed, to keep our Medicaid, or take it from us,” Chisnell said.
When asked what message she would like to give elected officials, Chisnell added, “We want them to know that just because we’re not upper-class does not mean that we do not deserve to live, and to live humanely.”
Beyond Medicaid and SNAP: Reproductive Healthcare, Gun Control, Immigration and Education Impacted
In addition to its Medicaid and SNAP cuts, MomsRising members in attendance on June 25 said they were concerned about the bill’s immigration provisions (it aggressively funds ICE), its impact on education, its reproductive healthcare cuts and its decimation of gun control measures.
Federal grants under Title X cover reproductive healthcare such as STI testing, ultrasounds, birth, family planning services and gynecological cancer screening. The Trump administration has already cut millions in Title X funding for Planned Parenthood, and this bill would prevent Medicaid and Title X from covering any of the organization’s many services.
This comes as the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that individual states can also block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding.
Gloria Pan, senior vice president at MomsRising, also highlighted how the bill puts children at greater risk of gun violence in schools.
“Buried in the bill are NRA sponsored measures that would deregulate gun silencers and shorteners, shotguns and rifles. The bill would abolish taxes on these items and end background checks and registration requirements,” Pan said. “Imagine a mass shooter who can muffle the sound of his guns. How would people know to run?”
‘You Are Part of the Demolition Crew’
State Sen. Batch (D-N.C.), along with two other panelists, Virginia Delegate Micheal Feggans and Illinois House Speaker Pro Tempore Kam Buckner, emphasized the unjust impact of this budget reconciliation bill at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee’s (DLCC) press conference, “States of Play,” on June 5.
“This isn’t a policy disagreement,” Buckner insisted. “It’s a deliberate, coordinated attack on working people, on seniors, on people with disabilities, on parents raising children on very tight budgets.”
Buckner added, “If you see a wrecking ball swinging towards your community and you choose to stay silent, you are not a bystander. You are a part of the demolition crew.”
If passed, Trump’s budget bill will have widespread effects on diverse sectors of the population, targeting those most vulnerable and in need of essential public programs. Women are especially impacted, as they would be denied already precarious health, reproductive and childcare.
