Rally to stop Medicaid cuts

As many of us know, healthcare is being defunded to further enrich the suffering billionaire class – the point of all cuts to federal spending. The current reconciliation bill in the U.S. House would cut $715 billion mostly from Medicaid, immediately leaving 8.6 million Americans uninsured and jeopardizing coverage for tens of millions more. I strongly suspect this is not what my conservative friends voted for, because most of us know and care about someone on Medicaid. This is a bait-and-switch by those in power.

We whose healthcare coverage continues unchanged may think we got lucky, but our turn will come, sadly. There’s a famous quote describing German citizens’ failure to respond effectively to the Nazi takeover nine decades ago. You may recognize it, paraphrased: “First they came for those on Medicaid … but I did not speak out because I wasn’t on Medicaid.”

Let’s be smarter during this openly Nazi-adoring regime. Let’s stand together shoulder to shoulder – as workers have for centuries – to defend our rights, in this case to comprehensive care for all our family members, co-workers and neighbors. The real divide isn’t left-right, it’s top-bottom. We who work are all on the bottom, and we’re realizing that we’re being played against each other. United, we are unbeatable.

You are cordially invited to join us at noon, Sat., May 31, at Buckley Park for “Single Payer Day of Action #HandsOffMedicaid” (also on Facebook). We’ll talk about healthcare funding cuts, who they impact and what we can do. We’ll also celebrate SB25-045, recently signed into law that is the first step to a universal healthcare system covering all Coloradans. Hope we see you there!

– Kirby MacLaurin, Durango