ST. PAUL, MN – Today, U.S. Representative Angie Craig joined Protect Our Care Minnesota for a virtual press conference to discuss Congressional Republicans’ recent vote to advance the deepest cuts to health care in American history. Rep. Craig was joined by Alicia Schaupp, the mother of a daughter with chronic illness who relies on Medicaid for care, and Kerry Adelmann, a homecare worker, member of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the mother of a veteran who became disabled in a motorcycle accident after returning from Iraq.
During the event, Rep. Craig emphasized the devastating impacts that Republican Medicaid cuts will have on everyday Minnesotans and recommitted to working with state and local officials to ensure that Minnesotans can continue to access quality health care.
“Working and middle-class Minnesotans will die because President Trump and Republicans in Congress are more concerned with lining the pockets of those who are already the wealthiest in our country, and they’re putting that over your family’s health,” said Rep. Craig. “But I’m not. Democrats are not. I believe that access to health care should be a right, not a privilege. That’s why I will do everything in my power to ensure that every Minnesotan is able to access the health care that they need.”
By slashing Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act tax credits after they expire at the end of this year, Congressional Republicans voted to take health care away from 17 million Americans, including 173,268 Minnesotans, in order to fund massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations.
Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will not only increase health care costs for Minnesotans, but will also likely force Minnesota counties to increase property taxes by shifting the cost of government programs over to the State.
Rep. Craig has long fought to lower health care costs and protect Medicaid in Congress. In April, she joined fellow top Democrats in introducing her Hands Off Medicaid and SNAP Act to block the extreme and unprecedented cuts to SNAP and Medicaid in the Republican budget.
In 2023, Rep. Craig introduced her Emergency Access to Insulin Act to help Americans without health insurance afford insulin by expanding emergency insulin access, lowering costs for those without health insurance and taking additional steps to hold drug companies accountable for price gouging Americans. And in 2022, provisions of Rep. Craig’s Affordable Insulin Now Act to cap insulin copays at $35/month for Medicare recipients were signed into law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
You can watch the full press conference here.
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