As part of the ongoing assault on essential services for the most vulnerable, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, includes $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years. As Emily Crawford noted for NPR in August, “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that these cuts could cause 10 million Americans to lose health insurance by 2034.”
As a caregiver for my disabled mother, who relies solely on Medicaid for health insurance, these estimates are terrifying. Also terrifying is that House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican and Christian, gave glory to God when the bill that created these cuts was passed.
From my perspective, celebrating this bill and the cuts it proposes fundamentally contradicts the ethic of care we see Jesus demonstrate for people in the gospels.
Proponents of the bill say cutting Medicaid funding will help combat fraud and waste, a narrative that has focused overwhelmingly on the false assumption that the program is cutting checks for young, able-bodied people to live off of. In reality, beneficiaries or recipients (i.e., those who receive health coverage, rather than a source of income) account for a negligible amount of fraud when compared to providers. According to the government’s own research, the percentage of improper payments was a mere 5% in fiscal year 2024, and for 79% of these instances, it was due to insufficient documentation.
While I have never received health care via Medicaid, I have been embroiled in the legislative struggles around Medicaid for the past year.
Last August, while I was working at a grocery store as a produce clerk, I received a text from my sister, telling me our mom had been taken to the hospital for what they both thought was an extreme case of vertigo. But after being seen by the doctor, it turned out she had suffered a severe stroke. If the surgeons hadn’t performed life-saving surgery the following morning, the doctors said my mom would’ve died. I never returned to my job. Instead, I became her full-time caregiver. Recovery has been a long road and has entailed a new and often painful life for all of us.
My mom’s stroke has been the single most impactful event in my life. The pain and grief have been unlike anything I have ever experienced. Added to this pain and grief is the reality of the cuts to Medicaid, which my family relies on. And not only does my family rely on this aid, but millions of other Americans do too.
The stigmatization of low-income and disabled recipients is not new and serves a political purpose: to make politically disenfranchised groups further expendable in public discourse and policy. Jamila Michener, who is the author of Fragmented Democracy and associate professor in government and public policy at Cornell University, told NPR on July 4:
“We’re absorbing on a society-wide level these stereotypes, and it creates an environment of harm for the people who need to use these programs ’cause they’re made to feel like less than. And not because it’s in their imagination, but because it’s in the public discourse, right? And so when you say, we’ve got to give you a requirement to make sure you’re working before we give you these benefits, that is reinforcing the idea you can’t be trusted.”
In following the well-worn path of greed and stigmatization, which have been so central to both U.S. public discourse and policy, lawmakers have paved the way for a new phase in the ongoing assault on poor and disabled people.
READ MORE: Churches Are Forgiving Medical Debt for Pennies. Yours Can Too
“Serving more than 90 million people, Medicaid is an enormous investment in the people in the U.S. — the kind of good work that Jesus would be proud of,” Lauren W. Reliford wrote for Sojourners in 2023. “As Christians, we should be applauding the fact that our country has such a system in place: It is a testament to the value we place on humanity because we are made in the image of God and therefore treat each other in a manner befitting of the Spirit.”
Despite opponents of Medicaid trying to mischaracterize the program as wasteful or its recipients as frauds, those receiving social assistance and low-income health care know just how restrictive and dehumanizing it can be to fight for access to life-saving and life-sustaining services in the U.S.
The program in which I am enrolled requires that I not receive any other form of income, even though what I make as a caregiver is nowhere near enough to live on. I was planning on getting a master’s degree in theology, but after initially being told that the program would allow it, I found out a few weeks before my start date that the caregiver program, in fact, barred recipients from attending all forms of school, including online programs. Taken together, these requirements mean I am not allowed to earn enough to live off of or afford my own market-based health care; nor do I have access to health care via an employer or school.
Medicaid, like all programs informed by the stigmatization of the poor, is certainly a broken system. However, the fault lines are not along fraud but requirements that introduce additional hardship to recipients. In my family’s ongoing struggle, one thing has become painfully apparent to me: This society is organized to inflict immense cruelty on those most in need. This cruelty is characteristic of the capitalist system.
In my family’s ongoing struggle, one thing has become painfully apparent to me: This society is organized to inflict immense cruelty on those most in need. This cruelty is characteristic of the capitalist system.
But in the ethics of mutual support and solidarity, Christians can offer an alternative to this system. Creating these mutual support networks can look like helping your neighbor dig a sewage line, organizing your church community to pay off people’s medical debt, or advocating for Medicaid programs to be expanded and protected.
Such acts of solidarity bring to mind Ecclesiastes 4: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). Ultimately, mutual aid is about accompanying people in their struggle to get their needs met. People who make a conscious effort to share in the collective struggle of the poor and marginalized embody God’s preferential option for the poor. Such an approach to the world is what truly gives glory to God.
Christian Noakes is a writer, artist, and caregiver. He has a masters in sociology from Georgia State University.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!
