Newly elected U.S. Senator Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) warned that Medicaid cuts are “going to be a disaster for everybody,” saying insured Americans would pay through higher premiums as hospitals push emergency room costs onto them.
El-Sayed made the remarks on Friday in an interview on MS NOW, where the hosts asked what Democrats should do first once they take office. He listed “stopping the nuclear bomb that’s about to go off in our healthcare system with these Medicaid cuts” as the third of three immediate priorities, after ending the Iran war and ending the tariff regime.
El-Sayed Explains the Premium Chain
“It’s not just people who are losing Medicaid, which is bad enough,” El-Sayed said. “But it’s not like when people lose their Medicaid, they don’t get sick anymore.”
He described what follows: “They still get sick, but then they go to the hospital when it’s the most expensive, going, to the emergency room. And then the emergency room has to figure out how to pay for it. So they push this back on to insured folks.”
“So your insurance prices, premiums now go up double digits and you get this cycle which is going to make it unaffordable for everybody,” he said. These are El-Sayed’s own projections, and he did not cite a source or figure for the cuts.
Murray and Pelosi Hit Medicaid Cuts
Democrats had already pressed the same issue before the midterms. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a post on X that “the millions of Americans priced out of their plans or kicked off Medicaid” are interested in health care, and accused Republicans of passing Medicaid cuts. She said families had seen premiums “double, triple or even worse” after enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits expired. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had likewise criticized Republicans over Medicaid cuts, rising premiums and rural hospital closures.
Hospitals Face Strain From Cuts
A March report from the watchdog group Public Citizen found that nearly 450 hospitals face a high risk of closing or cutting services due to more than $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all hospital spending, the report said.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and produced by Benzinga editors.
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