MADISON, WI – Yesterday, U.S. Representative Mark Pocan and healthcare advocates joined Protect Our Care Wisconsin to discuss a new report laying bare the damage being done across Wisconsin after Congressman Tom Tiffany and Donald Trump slashed more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. 

While the ultra-wealthy rake in even more, working families in Wisconsin are footing the bill. People are losing coverage, premiums are skyrocketing, and hospitals are being pushed to the brink. The report comes as Trump’s executive order calls for scaling back pediatric vaccines like measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), risking worse public health outcomes and delaying essential immunization for children. Pocan and area entrepreneurs called on lawmakers to end the GOP health care crisis by restoring the ACA tax credits, reversing Medicaid cuts and lowering health care costs for Wisconsin families. 

Attacks on health care put lives at risk as over 45,000 Wisconsinites have dropped ACA plans due to skyrocketing premiums while nearly 20,000 have already lost their Medicaid or CHIP coverage. Hospitals risk closing their doors or reducing services, forcing Wisconsinites to forgo routine doctor’s visits and travel farther for emergency and lifesaving care. Already, over 80 hospital wards, over 40 maternity wards, and nearly 320 clinics have shuttered nationwide. Because of Donald Trump and his Republican allies, everyone, everywhere, will pay higher costs, regardless of where they get coverage. 

“In the last year I have watched the bill Tom Tiffany supported and still supports – the “Big Beautiful Bill” – drive up my cost of doing business as well as my ability to attract and retain early childhood teachers, in the end leaving my staff to pay the price for such callousness,” said childcare provider Macy Buhler.

“Tom Tiffany voted for cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to put money directly into the pockets of billionaires and political insiders,” said Main Street Action member and entrepreneur Corrine Hendrickson. “This has led to 65,389 of our neighbors no longer having health care. With more uninsured every single day. Meanwhile, we are left doing fundraisers and meat raffles to make sure our neighbors survive.”

You can watch the full event here, and learn more about GOP attacks on health care here.