As RCPA continues to advocate for protecting Medicaid from devastating cuts at the federal level, we wanted to provide you with some resources, including a Pennsylvania-specific letter that you can easily tailor as you see fit to your Congressional House member. The letter details how important Medicaid is to your community, not only in terms of those you treat, but also for the economic health of those you employ and the broader community in which they live. The letter also requests a one-on-one meeting between the legislator’s office and you, to allow you to further discuss the importance of protecting Medicaid. If you do choose to ask for a meeting through this letter or otherwise, RCPA is happy to assist you in preparing for the meeting based on our experience and the experience of other providers that have already met with their Congressional representatives on this issue.
Although it is important for all legislators to hear from our health and human services providers, it is especially important that we reach Pennsylvania’s US House Republicans, given that the budget resolution adopted by the House directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find at least $880 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years. Many worry this will require deep cuts to Medicaid. In particular, given their committee assignments or stated positions on Medicaid, there are six key US representatives who need to hear from us. They are:
- US Rep. John Joyce (PA-13) (Vice Chairman, Energy and Commerce Committee)
- US Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11) (Appropriations Committee)
- US Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14) (Ways and Means Committee)
- US Rep. Mike Kelly (PA-16) (Ways and Means Committee)
- US Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1) (Ways and Means Committee)
- US Rep. Rob Bresnahan (PA-8)
To assist with your outreach and to help tailor the letter provided above, we have provided additional resources below:
- A website through which you can find your US representative;
- The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Data Dashboards and Reports web page, where you can easily find Congressional district-specific Medicaid data, including Medicaid enrollment for each district;
- Email addresses for the chiefs of staff and other key staffers for each of the 17 US House representatives in Pennsylvania; and
- A report from the Paragon Health Institute that argues that expanding public health insurance has minimal impact on health outcomes and recommends focusing on healthy behaviors and medical innovation for more effective improvements. While we disagree with that assertion, some legislators have used the points made in the report to support their argument for cutting Medicaid. Knowing what the report says can help you prepare for conversations in which these arguments might be made.
We encourage you to use these resources in reaching out to your Congressional representatives. RCPA is happy to help in any way we can.
