WATCH: In Senate Floor Speech, Kelly Shares Medicaid Stories from Arizona Town Halls

“We’re talking about kids, seniors, pregnant women, people with disabilities. I heard from them last week. I promised them that I would bring their stories back to D.C. and share them.”

After hosting town halls across Arizona last week, today Senator Mark Kelly shared in a floor speech the stories he heard from Arizonans who rely on Medicaid for their health care. From mothers to people with disabilities and health care providers, they told Kelly how their lives would be upended under the Trump and Republican plan to gut Medicaid in order to give rich people tax cuts. 

AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid program, provides health care for more than two million Arizonans, including over 750,000 who gained coverage through Arizona’s Medicaid expansion and Proposition 204. AHCCCS ensures working families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities can access essential medical services, including doctor visits, prescriptions, and long-term care. Cutting Medicaid would not only take away coverage but also put hospitals and community health centers at risk of closing, making it harder for all Arizonans to get the care they need.   

These are some of the stories Kelly brought back from Arizona and shared on the floor to highlight the real-life consequences of making cuts to Medicaid: 

“In Scottsdale, along with Senator Ruben Gallego, I heard from a woman named Quianna Brown. Quianna is the mother of a 10-year-old girl that her and her husband adopted from foster care, and she has special needs and has a rare form of diabetes. Her daughter was diagnosed and treated thanks to Medicaid. Along with her husband—who served in the United States Navy for 23 years—Quianna works every day to provide for her family and she is afraid that her daughter is going to lose her health care. She finished her remarks at this town hall by comparing Medicaid to a house that Republicans are planning to burn down. She said, ‘Would you mind telling your colleagues in Washington that when they’re burning down this house, there’s people still inside? My kid is inside.’”  

“Samia, from Sierra Vista, is the mother of two children: a 15-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. Her son only has one kidney and severe scoliosis. Both of them are autistic and were diagnosed with a rare tumor disorder which cripples their bodies’ capacity to stop the growth of tumors. The result is that their chance of getting cancer is 85 to 95 percent. She knows that the best chance her kids have of beating cancer and surviving is to find it early, and Medicaid has allowed her to get the frequent screenings that her children need. She shared that both her children meet the burden of placing them in a long-term care facility, but thanks to Arizona Medicaid’s paid caregiver program, she can care for them at home. That’s a success. Medicaid is a literal lifeline for her kids.” 

“Tiffany Leslie Pasillas, from Marana, also cares for her 6-year-old daughter Aiyana at home. Aiyana is immunocompromised, she’s non-verbal, she can’t walk, and she requires care 24/7. Tiffany shared that, without Medicaid, she would be forced to limit care and evaluate whether she could continue to care for her at home or have to place her daughter in a specialized facility for her severe needs.  

 “In Tucson, Arizona, I heard from Chad Durns, who is living with multiple sclerosis and is unable to work. He relies on Medicaid to afford his MRIs and infusion treatments. When he spoke up at the town all, he talked about the potential costs of his healthcare if he lost his Medicaid coverage. Through tears, he said, “The level of costs of those things would be devastating for a guy like me.” 

 “Amalia is the daughter of Crissy McGann. Amalia is a 5-year-old kid who uses Medicaid to receive care for a rare genetic disorder. [Crissy] is terrified that the services her daughter depends on allow her to thrive would be cut or reduced and called the proposed cuts “’disastrous for the disability community.’” 

At the end of his remarks, Kelly urged his colleagues to think about the people they represent as they negotiate plans to gut Medicaid: “These stories exist in every single state, in every single district, red or blue […] We are representatives of the people. We’re here to make peoples’ lives better. To my colleagues, I urge you: stop trying to burn down the house. Your constituents are inside.” 

Click here to view and download Kelly’s remarks.