The New York Times reported on the Little Lobbyists’ efforts in a heartbreaking article. They are a group of children with serious medical needs and their parents who rely on Medicaid. They went to Capitol Hill last week to warn that Trump’s Big Beautiful Billionaires Budget Bill includes Medicaid cuts that could be “devastating.”
The Little Lobbyists group was formed in 2017, during Donald Trump’s first term, to oppose the GOP effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Their successful campaign to save the law was part of a broader backlash against the proposal, which was driven in large part by major health care lobbies, like hospitals and insurance companies, as well as patient groups worried about losing insurance coverage,” as per The Times.
But this year, the kids and their families are pretty much on their own. “The bigger lobbying players have been more muted,” The Times noted about the bill that cuts life-saving services for the neediest in order to give tax cuts to the most fortunate. “There are fewer television ads and demonstrations, and fewer furious public statements from health provider groups warning about the potential effects of the cuts,” The Times said.
Friday night, Elena Hung, executive director and co-founder of Little Lobbyists, talked about her efforts to “put a face on Medicaid” and its vital importance on MSNBC’s The Last Word show.
“Medicaid pays for the kind of home care that private insurance doesn't,” Hung explained. “Home care enables medically complex kids like mine, like Xiomara, to live safely at home with their own families and grow up with their siblings and go to school.”
She stressed that Medicaid is not just for healthcare but also education. “My daughter goes to school with her nurse who keeps her medically safe, and that is the only way she's able to access her education. Without that, she would - she and children like her would be forced into institutions like nursing homes and medical facilities," she said. "History has shown that when Medicaid budgets are cut, the first thing that goes, the first thing that's cut are the home and community-based services, the home care that children like mine rely on.”
The Little Lobbyists went to Capitol Hill to counter Republican lies about the impact of their intended cuts. “So we keep emphasizing, showing them, showing up and saying, ‘These are the children who will be directly affected. Look my child in the eye. these are the children who will be affected,’” Hung said.
Hung’s daughter, Xiamora, just finished fourth grade and will soon celebrate her 11th birthday. “Those are two milestones that were never, ever promised to a medically complex child like her,” Hung continued. “She was born with a number of serious medical conditions affecting her airway, lungs, heart and kidneys and spent the first five months of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit. and it is because of Medicaid that she is thriving today, and children like her are thriving because of Medicaid.”
It tells you everything you need to know about the state of our country today that Republican lawmakers and Donald Trump are working to take from kids like Xiamora in order to give more money to guys like Elon Musk - while hospitals, insurance companies and other well-heeled organizations that supposedly care about the needy remain pretty quiet.
