NATIONWIDE — With members of Congress returning to their home districts this week, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members across the country are flooding town halls, rallying, and marching in the streets demanding legislators protect Medicaid. There are over 50 events planned nationwide from New York to Alaska and everywhere in between.

“Let’s be clear – Americans have flooded Congressional phone lines, rallied at town halls, and lifted their voices to make it clear that they do not support massive cuts to the healthcare and public services they depend on,” said SEIU International President April Verrett. “Congress must reject the disastrous path of ripping away healthcare for 80 million children, pregnant women, veterans, seniors and people with disabilities by gutting Medicaid. We will hold elected officials accountable for their votes and demand that they support working peoples’ priorities and the wages, healthcare, and security we all deserve.”

Congress’s plan to slash Medicaid to give trillions in tax cuts to billionaires will take healthcare from millions of seniors, veterans, working moms and dads, people with disabilities and nearly 40% of our nation’s children. Medicaid is also essential for funding healthcare jobs, nursing homes, and hospitals. And because Medicaid makes up a significant portion of state budgets, any cuts to Medicaid could lead to cuts in other essential services, like education and infrastructure.

HANDS OFF MEDICAID: Workers Take to the Streets

This week’s actions kicked off in Juneau, Alaska where SEIU members rallied at the State Capitol. As the Juneau Empire reported, “Betty Redd-Mendez, a Mat-Su caregiver, flew with Beebe to Washington, D.C., and she spoke on the Capitol steps on Wednesday. ‘This is our lifeline,’ she told the Juneau Empire after the protest. Her father has prostate cancer.

“‘For a lot of families this is not a joke,’ she said. ‘If they take it away I don’t think my dad’s going to be here. I added onto my home so he and my brother can stay with me, and it saves the state and the federal government a lot of money by me doing that instead of them being put in a home.’”

In Medford, Oregon, SEIU members rallied in Congressman Cliff Bent’s (R-Ore.) district – speaking out and making their voices heard. When asked about the rally by KOBI-TV, President of SEIU 503, Johnny Earl, said, “Medicaid helps in a multitude of ways. It helps those who are suffering from addiction get off drugs, it helps those who are in desperate need of some financial assistance because times have gotten tough. It’s a bridging gap.”

And in Manhattan, thousands staged a powerful demonstration, as AMNY reported: “According to officials, around 5,500 protestors marched down Broadway past City Hall to Bowling Green, bearing banners and signs. A few hundred protestors split from the march and took a left turn on Wall Street to stage a die-in in front of the New York Stock Exchange, where demonstrators held up tombstone-like signs with messages such as ‘DOGE Cuts Let Ebola Into USA,’ ‘Died From No Health Insurance,’ or ‘DOGE Cut Off My Medicaid,’ highlighting the worst-case scenarios if essential services were cut.”

Photo credit Gabriele Holtermann in AMNY

SEIU Member: ‘I Voted for Trump, but Medicaid Should Not Be a Political Thing’

A certified nursing assistant and SEIU member who voted for Trump in 2024, is speaking out in a new ad from Save My Care ad that will run in key 10 Republican-held districts: AZ-01, CA-22, CA-40, NY-01, NY-02, NY-17, PA-07, PA-08, WA-04, and AZ-01.

WATCH HERE

“I look after seniors here at the nursing home,” said John, SEIU member. “Most of them pay for it through Medicaid. So if Congress goes through these big cuts to Medicaid, some of our residents will probably have to leave. Most of them will have nowhere else to go and look, I'm a Republican. I voted for Donald Trump, but Medicaid should not be a political thing. They need to know, cutting it would hurt all of us.”

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