Kristen Crowell knows it only takes one health care bill to upend one’s life and send it into a downward spiral. 

In 2006, Crowell was struggling to make ends meet for her and her children. It was difficult to find the money to pay all her bills on time. Then she received an $886 bill for her child’s dental work. 

“One dental bill sent our family into a spiral of debt, and the shell game of which bills to pay and which bills to wait was part of the everyday strain on our family,” Crowell said during an event in Scranton on June 23. “First we got our electricity cut off, then I had my car repossessed, and ultimately our home went into foreclosure.” 

Now, nearly two decades later, Crowell fears that many more people across the country are going to face similar financial devastation because Republican members of Congress are pushing hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts that could leave millions of people uninsured across the country.

“This is a choice right now before our elected leaders: Will you push more of us into poverty?” Crowell said. “Will you push us into debt? Will you take away our dignity as we are trying to raise and support our families? Or will you finally get a spine and stand up to the billionaire class demanding another handout of our tax dollars?”

Crowell shared her story as part of the “Stop the Billionaire Giveaway” national bus tour, which is sponsored by Fair Share America, a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates for tax justice and of which Crowell serves as executive director. During the tour, which made stops across Pennsylvania and is now making its way across the country, speakers describe what Medicaid has meant to them and the immense pain that cuts to the public health insurance program would cause. 

‘Don’t bow down to the ultra rich’

In an effort to pay for President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, House Republicans in May passed the One Big Beautiful Act, which, in addition to the Medicaid cuts, would carve hundreds of billions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and add trillions of dollars to the national debt over the next decade. Every House Republican from Pennsylvania, and all but five House Republicans in total, voted for the legislation. No House Democrat voted for the bill.

In Pennsylvania, the bill could cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their Medicaid coverage and food assistance, close hospitals and nursing homes, and result in thousands of jobs being lost. Health clinics, including Planned Parenthood sites that offer a wide range of health care services and also provide abortions, could shutter in the commonwealth if the legislation is signed into law.

The bill is now before the Senate, which recently unveiled its version of the legislation. If the Senate passes it, the bill would return to the House for another vote before it would go to the president, who supports the legislation. The Senate was poised to vote on the bill at the time of this story’s publication.

During the event in Scranton, Pennsylvanians called on Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick to vote against the Medicaid cuts. They also criticized Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who represents Scranton in Congress, for voting for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“All of us need to call Sen. McCormick and Congressman Bresnahan and ask our family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors to call them, too,” said Susan Wiggins, a laboratory technician at Regional Hospital of Scranton. “Together we have the power to stop these horrific cuts. Let’s send a loud and strong message: Stand up for working families. Don’t bow down to the ultrarich. No Medicaid cuts for tax giveaways to billionaires.”

Medicaid provided hope after she left an abusive marriage

For Autumn Gravier, a Harrisburg resident and policy and political fellow at Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, Medicaid allowed her and her children to access health care after Gravier left an abusive husband.

“I married my high school sweetheart,” Gravier said at the Scranton event. “I thought I was choosing safety. I thought I was choosing the American dream. At 16, I believed the lie we sell young women, that if you pick the right man, marry into the right family and build the perfect home, life will protect you. You’ll be happy and safe.”

Instead, Gravier said she was “living a nightmare.”

“The thing about the American dream is it leaves out the details,” she said. “It leaves out the controlling husbands. It leaves out the manipulation, the enabling in-laws, the control,” she said. “One night, I woke up to my husband raping me with my daughter asleep beside me. I was frozen, mortified, confused.” 

Gravier soon left her husband and started looking for a job. While she searched, she knew she’d need to find health insurance and turned to Medicaid. 

“Medicaid gave me the access to care,” she said. “It allowed me to stay healthy, gave me access to therapy when I needed to process the trauma I had endured. It gave me the pediatric care to keep my children healthy and strong.

“It gave me the ability to focus on finding work, rebuilding my confidence and starting over without the constant fear of a medical emergency I couldn’t afford,” she continued. “For me, Medicaid wasn’t just a government program. It was dignity. It was stability. It was hope.”

Now, Gravier wants lawmakers supporting the Medicaid cuts to think about what they’re doing to survivors of domestic violence by cutting access to health insurance when people need it most. 

“You’re telling survivors that safety is only for the rich,” she said. “Our lifeline is under attack. And let me be clear, cutting Medicaid isn’t just a policy decision. It’s a death sentence for people like me. Cutting Medicaid is cutting off hope. Cutting Medicaid is cutting off safety. Cutting Medicaid is cutting off lives. It’s telling survivors to stay silent.”