70,000 Ohioans at Risk

70,000 Ohioans Are About to Lose Their Healthcare

I want you to think about what 70,000 people looks like. That's not a number on a spreadsheet. That's every seat in Cleveland Browns Stadium — filled with people who are about to lose their Medicaid coverage.

These are people in our district. Seniors who need home health aides. Nursing homes that require funding.  Kids who need checkups. Working families who make too much for free care and too little to afford what's on the market. People who are one bad diagnosis away from financial ruin.

I've managed Medicaid operations for years. I know these programs. I know the people who depend on them. And I know what happens when you rip coverage away — because I've watched it happen.

People don't stop being sick. They stop getting treated. They skip medications. They avoid the doctor until something small becomes something catastrophic. Then they end up in the emergency room, and the cost gets passed on to every hospital, every insurer, and every family paying premiums in this district.

Cutting Medicaid doesn't save money. It moves it — and it costs lives.

This is personal for me. As a nurse, I've sat with patients who couldn't afford their prescriptions. As a healthcare executive, I've seen the spreadsheets where executives approve cuts that hurt families so the numbers look better for the board. As a small business owner buying insurance through the ACA, I've watched my own premium triple and my deductible go from $500 to $7,000.

I'm not watching this from the outside. I'm in it with you.

Rural healthcare in this district is already hanging by a thread. In Wayne and Ashland Counties, families are already driving too far to see a doctor. In Medina and Cuyahoga Counties, the hospitals and clinics that serve working families are already stretched thin. This bill makes all of that worse.

And Max Miller voted for it. Then he went back to missing votes and ignoring constituents.

In Congress, I'll fight to protect Medicaid coverage for every Ohioan who depends on it. I'll defend rural healthcare so our communities don't lose the providers they need. I'll take on the insurance company executives who are profiting while families suffer. And I'll protect Social Security and Medicare — because seniors earned those benefits, and they are not bargaining chips.

A nurse knows what happens when people lose access to care. I've seen it. I won't let it happen.

Let's fix this — together.