Duckworth, Durbin Hold Roundtable with Illinois Health Care Provides on the Impacts of the Trump Administration’s Cuts

Duckworth, Durbin Hold Roundtable with Illinois Health Care Provides on the Impacts of the Trump Administration's Cuts

[MARION, IL] - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today held a roundtable with Illinois health care providers, leaders and advocates to discuss the challenges they're facing in providing care to rural communities as a direct result of the Trump Administration's harmful health care cuts. Since being signed into law last July, President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill made the largest health care cuts in history, destabilizing the health care system with more than $1 trillion in cuts from Medicaid and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Photos from the roundtable can be found on Senator Duckworth's website.

"For many Illinoisans in rural communities, health care was already too expensive and too hard to get-and then came the Medicaid cuts," Duckworth said. "Slashing Medicaid has not only put reliable health care coverage at even more risk for hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans but also added even more pressure on rural hospitals already struggling to keep their doors open. The Administration's cuts will only make it harder for families to get care close to home when mere minutes can be life-saving-or stop access altogether. Senator Durbin and I will keep fighting to protect Medicaid, support our rural health care services and make sure every Illinoisan can get the care they need when they need it, no matter their zip code."

"Senator Duckworth and I sent letters to Illinois hospitals last year and asked them how the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its devastating Medicaid cuts would impact their hospital, health care workforce, and the patients they serve," Durbin said. "The 129 responses we received made it clear that this legislation will mean shuttering of services, layoffs, and even hospital closures-meaning patients will needlessly suffer. If you look at the numbers, 24 rural hospitals are at risk of closure in Illinois. I think we ought to make a commitment to rural hospitals and families struggling with the cost-of-living instead of slashing federal funding for health care in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires."

The consequences of these policies will continue to be felt across our state, with an estimated 400,000 Illinoisans expected to lose health coverage by 2034. Illinois nursing homes and hospitals, primarily in rural areas, are at risk of closing and Medicaid cuts are predicted to result in more than 27,000 jobs cut across the state.

Yesterday, Duckworth hosted a women's health care roundtable with local reproductive health clinics, obstetrics providers, federally qualified health centers and health departments to hear about the difficulties of providing reproductive and maternal care in rural Southern Illinois, where Carbondale has become a safe haven for women seeking care from across the region and surrounding states, and the impact of Trump Administration policies on access to care. Photos from the women's health care roundtable can be found on Senator Duckworth's website.

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