🩸 Blood Money: Senate Trades 12 Million Lives for $4 Trillion in Tax Cuts
Medicaid gutted, rural hospitals doomed, while wealthy Americans get massive breaks
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
The Senate just passed a massive bill that cuts taxes for wealthy people by taking away healthcare from millions of poor, elderly, and disabled Americans.
🏛️💰 Imagine if your school decided to buy new sports cars for the principal and superintendent 🚗💼 by canceling the free lunch program, 🍎🏫 the nurse's office, 🏥 and the special education services all at once.
That's essentially what Congress just did, but instead of hungry kids, we're talking about 16,000+ people who will die every year because they can't afford medicine, doctor visits, or emergency care.
💊💔 The bill now goes to the House where it could still be stopped, but time is running out to prevent what researchers are calling the biggest attack on healthcare for poor people in decades. 🏃♂️🕒
🗝️ Takeaways
💀 16,642 Americans will die annually from the proposed Medicaid cuts according to peer-reviewed research published in Annals of Internal Medicine
🏥 11-12 million people will lose healthcare coverage, with the Senate version making even deeper cuts than the House bill
⏰ One person dies every 18.3 minutes from these cuts - faster than it takes to drive between most Arizona towns
💰 $4+ trillion in tax cuts are being funded by stripping healthcare from working families, seniors, and disabled Americans
🍞 2+ million people lose food stamps as SNAP faces 20% cuts alongside the healthcare massacre
🏨 Rural hospitals will close as Medicaid revenue disappears, leaving entire regions without emergency care
⚖️ Work requirements force 80-hour monthly proof that sick and disabled people are "worthy" of staying alive
🎯 Latino, Indigenous, and rural communities hit hardest due to higher Medicaid dependency rates in these populations
Medicaid Cuts: Millions More Uninsured, Thousands More Dead
The Senate Just Passed Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" - And It's Deadly Beautiful
The ghoulish gift that keeps on giving just made its way through Congress this morning like a curandera's nightmare.
Senate Republicans have passed President Trump's signature domestic policy bill, setting the stage for a final vote in the House on legislation that would cut trillions of dollars in taxes while scaling back spending on Medicaid, food assistance, and clean energy programs.
What they're calling the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" is about as beautiful as a narco graveyard in the Sonoran Desert—and just as deadly.
This morning's Senate vote has pushed us closer to what researchers are calling a potential public health catastrophe that could kill more than 16,000 Americans annually while stripping healthcare from millions more.
The Numbers That Should Make Your Abuela Weep
Let's cut through the political pedo and talk about what this bill actually does to nuestra gente - our people. The numbers are starker than a Border Patrol checkpoint at 3 AM.
Early estimates suggest around 11 million people could lose coverage under the GOP bill. But wait, there's more! The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Senate tax bill will lead to roughly:
12 million fewer people receiving Medicaid
More than 2 million fewer people receiving food stamps.
¿En serio? We're talking about stripping healthcare from more people than live in the entire state of Arizona. That's not just a statistic - that's an entire estado worth of human beings who will wake up tomorrow without the medical care that keeps them alive.
When "Work Requirements" Become Death Sentences
The cruelest chiste in this legislative horror show is the inclusion of new federal work reporting requirements for the first time in the program's history — forcing millions of people to regularly prove they are working at least 80 hours a month to keep their health insurance.
Óigan, let me explain something to the congressional pendejos who crafted this policy: when you're diabetic and can't afford insulin because you lost your Medicaid coverage, it doesn't matter how many hours you work. Dead people don't have jobs. Dead people don't contribute to the economy. Dead people don't vote Republican.
More than 16,600 people could die as a result of losing access to or forgoing care, the researchers estimated. That's according to a recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and these numbers are conservative.
The real body count could be even higher.
The Border Connection: Why This Hits Our Communities Harder
Living here in the borderlands of southern Arizona, we know firsthand how access to healthcare literally means the difference between life and death. Our communities—predominantly Latino, Indigenous, and working-class—rely on Medicaid at disproportionate rates.
Medicaid has helped to narrow health inequities for people with low incomes across the country, including rural residents of all races and especially Black, Latino, and Indigenous people who experience unique barriers to health care.
This isn't an accident.
This is guerra—economic warfare disguised as fiscal responsibility. They're targeting the very programs that keep our abuelas alive, our children healthy, and our communities functioning.
Rural Hospitals: The Canaries in the Coal Mine
Many rural health care centers receive revenue from patients covered by Medicaid and losing that revenue could be costly.
Translation: rural hospitals—already hanging on by financial threads thinner than desert air—will start closing faster than quinceañera venues during a pandemic.
"These hospitals have been on the verge of tight finances for years, and this could be enough to shut them down," Mensik Kennedy told ABC News.
When the nearest emergency room is two hours away and your heart decides to throw a paro, those "fiscal savings" won't mean nada to your family.
The Math of Muerte: Death by Spreadsheet
Here's where the academic meets the apocalyptic. According to Boston University mathematician Brooke Nichols' Medicaid Cuts Impact Counter, the proposed cuts could result in an estimated 28,785 excess deaths in the first year after such a policy takes effect.
This translates to one additional death every 18.3 minutes.
Every 18 minutes.
That's less time than it takes to drive from Tucson to Sahuarita. Less time than a typical episode of La Rosa de Guadalupe. Every 18 minutes, someone dies because Congress decided tax cuts for billionaires were more important than keeping working families alive.
The Orwellian Irony of "Beautiful" Bills
"With this legislation, we're fulfilling the mandate we were entrusted with last November and setting our country and the American people up to be safer, stronger and more prosperous," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune after the vote.
¿Más prósperos?
Tell that to the 1.3 million people who will not fill their medications and 380,270 women who will skip a mammogram. Tell that to the families who will choose between groceries and insulin, between rent and chemotherapy.
The Tax Cut Con Game: Robin Hood in Reverse
Let's be crystal clear about what's happening here. The bill includes an increase to the standard deduction claimed by most taxpayers, rate reductions for most U.S. households, and a partial version of Trump's plan to end taxes on tipped wages, among many other provisions.
Sounds nice, right?
Except the legislation appears on track to cut Medicaid by about 18 percent and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by roughly 20 percent to pay for those tax cuts.
This is Robin Hood al revés - stealing from the poor and sick to give to the wealthy and healthy. It's a wealth transfer so audacious that even the most shameless coyote would blush.
SNAP Cuts: Because Hunger is Apparently a Choice
The assault on SNAP (food stamps) is equally vicious.
Republicans are offsetting some of those costs with cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, because apparently, making sure children don't go to bed hungry is now considered government waste.
"The demand for food is quite a bit higher than it was even at the height of the Covid crisis," said Bart Brown, president and CEO of Ozarks Food Harvest, a 100,000-square-foot warehouse on the edge of Springfield that serves about 30 million meals every year across one-third of Missouri.
But hey, why feed hungry kids when you can give another tax break to someone who owns a third yacht?
The Human Cost in Human Terms
Courtney Leader has been closely following the contentious tax-and-spending debate in Washington, not that she cares much for politics, but because she believes the proposed Medicaid cuts are a matter of life or death for her daughter. Her 9-year-old daughter with brain damage and cerebral palsy relies on Medicaid for daily survival.
"This is not a luxury. I do not have my daughter enrolled in Medicaid so we can have fancy things," Leader said. "I have my daughter enrolled in Medicaid so we can keep her alive and keep her at home, which I think is the best option for her."
This is what real families face while Congress plays accounting games with human lives. These aren't numbers on a spreadsheet - they're niños, abuelos, working parents, people with disabilities who deserve dignity and healthcare.
What Happens Next: The House Gauntlet
The bill now heads to the House, where some GOP lawmakers are signaling major objections. There's still time to stop this legislative monstruo, but it will take more than thoughts and prayers.
Republicans in the House and Senate must agree on identical versions of the plan before sending the legislation to Trump for his signature. Every day this bill sits in limbo is another day for organizing, calling representatives, and making our voices heard.
The Resistance Continues: ¡Sí Se Puede!
Hermanos y hermanas, we've been here before. We survived the first Trump presidency, and we'll survive this one, but only if we fight like our lives depend on it—because they literally do.
This isn't just about healthcare policy. This is about whether we live in a society that values human dignity over corporate profits, whether we believe healthcare is a human right or a luxury commodity for the wealthy.
The same forces that try to criminalize our existence at the border are now trying to kill us through healthcare policy. The same mindset that builds walls to keep families apart now builds bureaucratic barriers to keep sick people from getting care.
But we know something they don't: la lucha continues. Every generation of our people has faced existential threats and emerged stronger. This is our moment to stand up, speak out, and fight back.
How to Get Involved: From Resistencia to Action
Call Your Representatives: Even if they're Republicans. Even if they never listen. Make them hear our voices. Find your representatives at house.gov and senate.gov.
Support Healthcare Organizations: Groups like the National Hispanic Medical Association and Physicians for a National Health Program are fighting on the front lines.
Get Involved Locally: Your state representatives matter too. Many states are already exploring ways to maintain Medicaid coverage even if federal funding gets slashed.
Stay Informed: This fight is far from over. The House vote could happen any day, and we need to stay vigilant. Subscribe to Three Sonorans Substack to keep track of how these policies affect our borderland communities specifically.
Organize Your Community: Talk to your neighbors, your family, your compadres. Make sure everyone understands what's at stake. Knowledge is power, and power belongs to the people.
Hope in the Darkness: La Esperanza Nunca Muere
Mira, I won't lie to you—this is dark.
Darker than a moonless night in the Sonoran Desert. But just like the desert blooms after the rain, our communities have always found ways to survive and thrive in the face of systemic oppression.
We are the children of survivors.
We are the grandchildren of revolutionaries. We are the great-grandchildren of people who crossed deserts, oceans, and mountains to build better lives for their families. That sangre runs through our veins, and it demands that we fight.
Every 18 minutes, this policy will kill someone if we let it pass.
But every 18 minutes is also another chance to make a phone call, send an email, or convince someone to join the fight. Every 18 minutes is another opportunity to choose life over death, dignity over dollars, humanidad over hate.
¡La lucha sigue! The struggle continues, and so do we.
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Join the conversation: What questions do you have about how these Medicaid cuts will affect your family or community? How are you planning to get involved in the fight to stop this bill? Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
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This bill is an utter disaster in so many ways for Americans and for our country.
We're the only "advanced" country that doesn't have universal healthcare and the Republicans are racing to gut the limited healthcare safety net we have for the poor.
Our profit based, commercial healthcare system is the most expensive healthcare system in the world. A serious illness can bankrupt you. Our maternal death rate and infant mortality rates are already sky high, because mothers and babies can't afford the healthcare they need to survive.
Germany has has universal healthcare for over a 100 years. Bismark decided Germany would be a stronger country, if Germans were healthy. What a concept!