Members of the US House of Representatives are meeting this week to debate a legislative package that would, if enacted as written, have profound negative impacts on human rights in the United States.
It should not become law.
At its core, the bill would reshape how the US government raises and spends money. It would extend and deepen expensive tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthy while radically reducing federal support for public services and programs essential for rights. Health care, in particular, is at risk.
Under international human rights law, everyone has the right to health. The US government should ensure good quality health care is available and accessible for all.
The bill under consideration does the opposite. Rather than raising revenues equitably and using those resources to improve health, it would make health care less available, less affordable, and of poorer quality for millions of people.
Medicaid, a public program that provides health insurance to about 80 million low-income people, would take the brunt of this austerity. A report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan governmental research agency, found that the bill’s proposed changes to Medicaid would cause 7.6 million people to lose their health insurance, exposing them to the high costs of drug prices and hospital care. Black and Hispanic families would be disproportionately harmed.
The bill’s language aims at defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides essential health care, like cancer screenings, birth control, abortion services, and testing for sexually transmitted infections. The cuts could force clinics to close or stop providing certain services like obstetric care. Additionally, the bill would end federal funding and health benefit coverage for gender-affirming care for youth on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and for adults covered under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.
The proposed bill would also squeeze savings from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s largest anti-hunger program, potentially causing more than 3 million people to lose food assistance, according to CBO estimates.
It would also eliminate environmental health funding. Programs that reduce air pollution, a major driver of poor health outcomes that contributes to deepening racial health inequalities, would be cut. As would public subsidies promoting renewable energy sources in the United States, crucial to ending the climate crisis, which is a massive threat to health.
Taken together, these cuts would threaten the health and lives of millions of people.
Congressmembers should reject these cuts.
