U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen warned Tuesday that looming cuts to Medicaid will have a domino effect across the health care system beyond the 1 million Coloradans who rely on the federal program, including raising insurance rates and potentially forcing rural hospitals to close.

“Republicans are threatening to take health care away from kids, seniors and those who need it most to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations,” the Lakewood Democrat told reporters at a press conference at Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge.

Added Pettersen: “As a mom, I can’t imagine the fear of not being able to take my child to the doctor when they’re sick. We should be working to strengthen access to critical care, not dismantle the limited safety net we have.”

Medicaid, a program for lower-income Americans, is funded jointly by the federal and state governments. It covers one in five Americans and is among the largest line items in the federal budget, along with Medicare, Social Security and defense spending.

According to House Democrats, 34% of Colorado children rely on Medicaid, as do 62% of the state’s seniors living in nursing homes. Additionally, 36% of moms and newborn babies are covered by the program, and 39% of working-age Coloradans with disabilities use Medicaid.

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans insist that their budget blueprint doesn’t include cuts to Medicaid. Pettersen, however, noted that the Congressional Budget Office recently said it was “mathematically impossible” to reach the GOP’s proposed spending cuts — including $880 billion over 10 years from programs overseen by the House committee that handles Medicaid — without taking a chunk out of the program.

“So don’t be fooled,” Pettersen said. “They’re they’re not going to be able to lie their way out of the pain, the suffering and the people who are going to lose their lives unnecessarily for these actions.”

Part of the national Democrats’ coordinated “Medicaid Day of Action,” Pettersen’s press conference also featured a hospital representative, physicians, health care advocates and an 11-year-old cancer patient, who recounted her diagnosis and ongoing treatment.

“I hurt every day, and I’m battling broken ribs and have terrible post-chemo neuropathy,” said Quinn Harris, who was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer in 2022. “These are just some of the reasons that we need Medicaid. It helps pay for my doctors’ visits and therapy to help me with all the trauma that I’ve been through. I know that we are able to make a difference. We can do it.”

Her mother, Brooke Harris, said her daughter’s diagnosis left the Evergreen family “heartbroken, terrified, and forever changed.” She credited Medicaid with helping families like theirs avoid financial ruin.

“Medicaid truly eases the burden and takes away some of the anxiety for families like mine,” Harris said. “We already have enough to fear. Additionally, Medicaid can help with continuity of care and has been correlated with higher survival rates and better patient outcomes.”

Jeff Tieman, president and CEO of the Colorado Hospital Association, said 70% of the state’s hospitals are already operating on “thin or negatives” margins.

“The impact of cuts to this critical program will be devastating to many and may even threaten survival for our most vulnerable and the strength of our health care system,” Tieman said.

He noted that Medicaid currently reimburses hospitals at 79 cents on the dollar, even as labor costs are soaring, and that threatened cuts to the program could be “essentially unsustainable.”

“These reductions affect real people in real ways, and if we see Medicaid cuts again on the scale being discussed in Washington, we would see rural hospitals close,” Tieman said. “We would see additional services being cut for Coloradans around the state.”