Come to a Universal Health Care Public Forum Saturday July 26
2-4 PM at the Monroe County Public Library, 303 East Kirkwood, Bloomington IN
Brad Meyer is an engineer retired from NSA Crane and running for Congress in Indiana’s 9th district. He approached me because of his passion for universal healthcare. I agreed to moderate this panel with the understanding that this does not mean I am endorsing any candidate in this election, nor that there is any implied endorsement by Medicare for All Indiana Bloomington. This is a wonderful chance to educate people (voters) about Medicare for All.
You will need to register here.
Distinguished panelists will be joining us to discuss specific aspects of health care. Their focus is to highlight what is wrong today in their area, and in a just society, what would health care look like.
Ivy Lee, MD FAAHPM, beloved Bloomington Palliative Care physician and current Fellow in Addiction Medicine, will be discussing issues around addiction and recovery.
Erin Jeffries MD, MS, FACOG, Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology is a passionate advocate for women’s healthcare and reproductive rights.
Simon Higgs is an internet pioneer and founding member of Hoosier Action. He grew up with the British National Health Service and now lives in Monroe County where he is a journalist and IT consultant.
Lindsay Potts, MSW, LCSW, will be addressing community mental health and sharing her 18 years of experience in behavioral health care, including state government, health systems, higher education, community mental health, and private practice.
JOIN IN THIS THURSDAY!
[Editor’s note: Drs. Adam Gaffney, David Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler are mentors, heroes, and dear friends of mine. If you’re not too exhausted to read more about all the trouble we’re in, please read this. -RS]
Laying out the Ill-Effects of Medicaid Cuts in the Congressional Budget Bill
Summary: A new analysis reviewing all evidence regarding the likely impact of proposed Congressional Medicaid cuts quantifies the dire consequences of slashing coverage. About 7 million individuals will become uninsured, >2 million will skip care, and annual deaths will increase by 8-24 thousand. (Read online.)
Projected Effects of Proposed Cuts in Federal Medicaid Expenditures on Medicaid Enrollment, Uninsurance, Health Care, and Health
Annals of Internal Medicine
June 17, 2025
By Adam Gaffney, David U. Himmelstein, & Steffie Woolhandler
From the Abstract:
… Enactment of the House bill [Medicaid cuts] advanced in May 2025 would increase the number of uninsured persons by 7.6 million and the number of deaths by 16 642 annually …
Policy makers should weigh the likely health and financial harms to patients and providers of reducing Medicaid expenditures against the desirability of tax reductions, which would accrue mostly to wealthy Americans.
Comment by: Jim Kahn & Don McCanne
Drs. Gaffney, Himmelstein, & Woolhandler perform a critically important service: they compile and summarize the voluminous evidence that … health insurance provides access to care, improving health and extending life. And taking away health insurance has the opposite effects, harming health and increasing deaths. Of course we know that. But when these health policy leaders quantify what to expect with the specific proposed Medicaid cuts in the Congressional budget reconciliation bill, even the two of us – seasoned health policy analysts – are stunned. The accumulated empirical evidence is persuasive, and the anticipated harms are shocking.
We’ve taken the liberty of creating a summary table with the core findings (see above). Uninsured numbers rise by 6.8 million among adults (plus about 1 million among children), with 8 – 24 thousand added deaths. For more detail, especially about reductions in access to care and general health status, check out the article. And also see the PNHP press release here and NBC coverage here.
As we’ve reported previously, most voters oppose Medicaid cuts, even among Trump supporters. And in the last couple of days, the Senate parliamentarian deemed up to 40% of the cuts unacceptable by Senate budget bill rules. So we have some hope that these efforts to slash Medicaid will wither on the vine.
But they won’t wither on their own. It is essential for opponents to speak up.
Share this information widely. People need to know.
In case you missed the latest Prescription for Healthcare:
Prescription for Healthcare – Peter Hotez MD, PhD, “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science” July, 2025
Prescription for Healthcare – Peter Hotez MD, PhD, “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science” July, 2025
Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5
JUL 05, 2025
This month we interview Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean of Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine in Houston, Texas. He’s a pediatrician and public health advocate and on the forefront of vaccine development. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for his “work to develop and distribute a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine to people of the world without patent limitation.” His books include Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad and, The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist’s Warning.