Union nurses gathered outside U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis鈥� Western North Carolina office on Thursday to protest potential cuts to Medicaid, the government health program for low-income Americans.
About one in five Americans receives Medicaid. In North Carolina, are enrolled in some form of the program.
鈥淔und care, not billionaires! Fund care, not billionaires!鈥� about a dozen Mission Hospital nurses and others chanted on the steps of the historic courthouse in Hendersonville Thursday morning.
They were carrying a large check for $19.4 billion, bearing the words 鈥減aid for by working people鈥� and made payable to 鈥渢he billionaire class.鈥�
Nurse Molly Zenker said the check symbolizes the Medicaid funding that North Carolina is at risk of losing if Congress extends President Donald Trump鈥檚 tax cuts. Less federal support to shave funding off of social safety net programs.
鈥淭his is a knife in the back for people across the country, from the biggest city to the quietest backroad. 鈥� Elderly and disabled people would be robbed of the support services they need to survive. Millions could lose their ability to get anything but emergency care. Without Medicaid, we know patients won鈥檛 get the preventative care they need,鈥� Zenker said.
The group entered but no one from Tillis鈥� office was there. So they gave the check to a county employee who promised to leave it at the Republican senator鈥檚 door.
A Tillis spokesperson told BPR the budget recently passed by the Senate did not explicitly include any cuts to Medicaid.
鈥淭hanks to Senator Tillis鈥� leadership as the former Speaker of the House in North Carolina, the state was able to get its finances in order after decades of reckless mismanagement by Democrat politicians, which eventually allowed the state to be in a position to expand Medicaid coverage to more North Carolinians in 2023,鈥� Tillis spokesperson Adam Webb said in a statement.
But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for Republicans to reach their budget goals without making cuts to the program.
Western North Carolinians have raised the issue at several venues in recent weeks, including at last week held by Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards.
