Billionaires get richer while Wisconsinites lose access to health care with ‘Beautiful Bill’

The US Senate will examine the Trump budget bill this week. It includes the largest cut to Medicaid in the program’s history. It also blocks Medicaid from paying for women’s health care services at Planned Parenthood clinics.

“This bill slashes Medicaid for so many people in need and slashes it for the sake of giving tax breaks to billionaires,” said Tanya Atkinson, president  and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin.

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”—which passed the US House of Representatives in mid-May—gives permanent tax cuts to high earners and corporations, expands deductions for the wealthy, and creates a dramatic increase in the estate tax exemption.

“They are taking away your health care so big corporations and billionaires can get richer,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) at a news conference. “We’re talking about giving people fewer options and pricing them out of care so Republicans can give handouts to the corporations that jack up the cost of prescription drugs and health care in the first place.”

To pay for those benefits for the wealthy, the bill cuts Medicaid by roughly $700 billion and SNAP by about $300 billion, kicking up to 15 million Americans off their health insurance and raising the number of uninsured Americans by 50%. 

The bill also stops an initiative that kept down health insurance premiums—meaning they could go up for millions of people across the country.

Atkinson said the bill would hurt accessibility and heavily impact rural residents, women of color, and those with low income. 

“Those in Wisconsin who already are disproportionately impacted by the challenges of accessing health care are going to be disproportionately impacted by the inability to use Medicaid insurance at a Planned Parenthood or disproportionately impacted by the other programs that were slashed under this bill.”

Cutting off reproductive health care

Another aspect of Trump’s bill is that it would essentially “defund” Planned Parenthood, by barring women who are on Medicaid from utilizing Planned Parenthood clinics for their health care. This does not include abortion care, which is already blocked from Medicaid.

“Federal Medicaid is not used to provide abortion care—so in this bill what is attempted to be cut is reimbursements for all the prevention services—birth control, cancer screenings, well-person exams—health care needs that if not addressed now could have devastating effects for people in the future,” said Atkinson.

That act alone could leave more than a million low-income people who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers for preventative and reproductive health care with nowhere to go. In Wisconsin, about 60% of Planned Parenthood patients have Medicaid for their form of insurance.

Atkinson emphasizes they don’t just get handed money from the federal government. “When somebody comes in for care and they use Medicaid as their insurance, then Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin bills Medicaid just like every other health care provider,” she said. “Wisconsin does not receive a federal check to provide this care.”

Baldwin was joined by a couple of other Democratic US Senators for a press conference in Washington, DC. Alongside them was Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson.

“Make no mistake, Planned Parenthood is being targeted,” McGill Johnson said. “This is nothing more than an attempt to end abortion in the United States, and they are willing to take away birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more to do it.”

“Planned Parenthood is a health care provider but Republicans refuse to accept that and would rather try to score political points, so they are going to take that essential health care away from American families,” Baldwin said. “It’s wrong and we are going to fight it.”

It’s not popular to cut

Atkinson suggests some lawmakers’ values and priorities are misaligned with Wisconsinites and people throughout the country. “It’s a values choice to take away Americans’ freedom to make our own health care decisions,” she said. “And here we are again, with a small minority of politicians trying to impose their beliefs on all Americans.”

A majority of people say they oppose “defunding” Planned Parenthood, and one in three women have been to a Planned Parenthood health center for care.

“No matter where I travel in Wisconsin, I hear about the dire need to increase access to affordable care,” Baldwin shared. “In every home, expanding access to care is an issue that Americans get behind and yet here we are again, talking about how Republicans want to take away access to affordable quality care.”

Related: Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is ugly for Wisconsin. Republicans voted for it anyway.