(ROYAL OAK) – Michigan’s health department was assigned to craft a report detailing the impact of potential future federal Medicaid cuts as part of an executive directive Gov. Gretchen Whitmer penned this month at a press event at Beaumont University Hospital.

The U.S. House is considering up to $880 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years, which KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation) projects represents 29 percent of state-financed Medicaid spending per resident, to cover the costs of extending tax cuts President Donald Trump signed in 2017.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) said House Republicans have circled May 7 on the calendar as the day they will roll out more details on the reductions, which she said is not about presenting a balanced budget.

The tax cuts in question come from the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, which lowered individual income tax rates and increased standard deductions, but also lowered the corporate income tax from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Also joining Whitmer in the hospital’s serene sixth floor atrium were U.S. Reps. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), as well as Dr. Dan Carey, president of Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital and several other white coats.

Medicaid is the third-largest mandatory program in the federal budget, accounting for 9 percent of federal spending in 2022.

The press conference was designed to shine a light on those who would be impacted by spending cuts to the health care program typically used by the poor. Tlaib described it as “life or death for many of our neighbors.”

“Medicaid is the difference between survival and suffering,” said Tlaib, who shared stories of constituents with health challenges who are barely making ends meet. “They’re not asking for handouts. They’re asking us not to abandon them.”

Whitmer said she’s hearing from people, too. Families are losing sleep over their health care coverage being thrown into question.

“It’s important that we carry the voices of Michiganders who need more care, not less, and deserve a government that is leading with compassion, not cruelty,” she said moments before inking the Executive Directive impacting the Department of Health and Human Services.

This story courtesy of MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.