Cutting medicaid will cost lives

Cutting Medicaid Will Cost Lives / The Brick Times / June 7, 2025

By Elissa Tierney

I was shocked to wake up this morning to the news that in the middle of the night the House of Representatives voted to cut Medicaid and SNAP, including three Representatives from my own state: Congressmen Van Drew, Smith, and Kean.

Life is already hard for millions of Americans, and applying for these programs and maintaining coverage is not a walk in the park, including for people with substance use disorder. Our communities don’t need to be kicked while we are already down, and while we’re trying to recover and rebuild our lives. We want to see our Representatives focus on the real ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ happening – and that’s coming from corporate providers and insurers overbilling and overcharging Medicaid, not from everyday people trying to get by and stay healthy.

Myself and a group of directly impacted New Jerseyans from Congressman Van Drew’s district met with his staff, just hours before the vote, and we laid out what was at stake for us: losing treatment, losing healthcare, losing access to food and housing, and possibly losing our lives to preventable overdose without continued substance use treatment.

Medicaid quite literally saved my life when I suddenly lost access to my insurance plan – because of Medicaid, I was able to see a doctor who specialized in substance use and was prescribed life-saving medication. It was a safety net and these federal programs got me back on my feet.

We can’t roll back the progress we’ve made on ending the overdose crisis. This fight isn’t over – our Congressmen are going home for the Memorial Day holiday, but when they come back, the Senate will take up the bill, and we will continue to make it clear that we need our Representatives to stand with us, not against us.

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