Community members and local Democratic officials gathered in front of Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Fort Lupton) Northglenn office today, urging the congressman to oppose a budget resolution spearheaded by House Republicans that would drastically scale back Medicaid.
The budget that House Republicans have proposed would slash billions of dollars in funding for Medicaid, an insurance program that allows low-income people to be covered. The spending plan laid forth by Republicans would cut over $800 billion from Medicaid over the next decade, part of a larger spending cut to finance to help pay for the over $4 trillion tax cuts they have proposed.
Evans has positioned himself as a moderate and represents one of the most competitive congressional districts in the country that covers parts of Adams and Weld County. However, Evans has refrained from criticizing the Trump administration or speaking on the proposed cuts to Medicaid.
Nearly 25% of residents in the 8th Congressional District rely on Medicaid.
Several local elected officials, including Northglenn Mayor Meredith Leighty and State Rep. Manny Rutinel (D-Commerce City) told the press that Medicaid was essential to thousands of Coloradans. Rutinel recently announced that he would run for Evans’ congressional seat in 2026.
“As your mayor, I see firsthand the impact Medicaid has on our families, our seniors, and most importantly, our children,” Leighty said. “Medicaid isn’t just a healthcare program, it’s a lifeline. Here in Northglenn, thousands rely on Medicaid for essential medical services from preventative care to life-saving treatments. Without it, too many of our neighbors would be left to choose between getting food on the table or taking their child to the doctor.”
Leighty said that, as a school principal, she sees the impact Medicaid has in the school system daily.
“Medicaid ensures that our most vulnerable students get the care they need from doctor visits to mental health support.”
Leighty cautioned that cuts to Medicaid could have dramatic effects on schools, crippling low and middle-income families.
“If Medicaid is weakened, our schools will feel the impact. More sick days, more struggling students, and fewer opportunities for success, as almost 40% of children under 18 rely on Medicaid in this community.”
According to Children’s Hospital Colorado, more than 30 million children rely on Medicaid for health insurance nationally.
Leighty ended with a direct statement to Evans.
“That’s why I am calling on Congressman Gabe Evans to do what’s right, stand up for Northglenn families, seniors, and children, and protect Medicaid. Congressman Evans, please do the right thing for your constituents.”
Rep. Rutinel spoke after Leighty, saying his family relied on Medicaid when he was young.
“I’m the son of a single mom, working-class background,” Rutinel told reporters. “I spent a lot of my childhood working at McDonald’s. I’ve got a scar on my arm from the hundreds of times that I sold my blood at a plasma center trying to make ends meet.”
“My mom often had to choose between keeping the roof over our heads or important medical procedures for herself. We managed to get by for many months, because my mom and I qualified for Medicaid,” Rutinel added. “That’s the only reason we got by for many, many months. The same is true for hundreds of thousands of Colorado families. Just in Congressional District 8 alone, over 70,000 individuals are at risk of losing healthcare coverage because of misguided budget cuts that politicians in DC are proposing right now. It’s unacceptable.”
Rutinel sees these proposed cuts as indicative of what Republicans have in store for other programs.
“And next, they’re eyeing Social Security and Medicare and hardworking Coloradans have put too much of their blood, sweat, and tears into their labor to be robbed by billionaires of their rights and entitlements,” Rutinel warned.
Rutinel lambasted the proposed cuts to Medicaid as misguided, saying: “The budget in DC is a sham. It doesn’t lower grocery prices, it doesn’t lower housing costs, and it explicitly raises the healthcare costs of millions of Americans. They’re breaking their promises left and right.”
“I am going to call on all members of the Colorado delegation, Democrat and Republican to vote no on this misguided budget and get to work on delivering real results for Coloradans, not playing political games on the behalf of billionaires.”
Rebecca Miller, a local hospice care nurse in Adams County, says the practice she is with is covered by Medicaid and was concerned about what proposed cuts to the program would mean for her patients.
“I’m a hospice nurse and a mother of three boys… and I stand before you today not just as a nurse, but as a witness to the deep and profound impact of Medicaid,” Miller told reporters. “In hospice, I help people live fully with the time they have left by managing pain, breathlessness, anxiety – ensuring dignity and peace in their final moments.”
“Many of my patients depend on long-term care Medicaid, which covers nursing home stays that cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 per month, far beyond what most families can afford,” Miller emphasized how crucial Medicaid was for her patients. “Losing healthcare can happen to anyone. One accident, one diagnosis, one crisis can take everything away. Medicaid is not a handout, it is a lifeline. Medicaid provides critical healthcare for over 80 million Americans, seniors, people with disabilities, low-income families, and pregnant women. It keeps hospitals, nursing homes, and home healthcare services running, ensuring care for entire communities… Despite this, some see Medicaid as an expense. The truth is that Medicaid is an investment in public health, economic stability, and human dignity.”
Miller questioned what would happen to those who relied on Medicaid if the proposed cuts go through. “Medicaid is under threat. So my question to Gabe is, where are these patients supposed to go if you elect to defund Medicaid? Roll them out into the street? How about the kids at Children’s Hospital? Unplug their vent or stop their cancer treatments?”
Miller challenged lawmakers eyeing Medicaid cuts to look at the reality of her patient’s lives.
“I have a challenge to anyone who dares to defund Medicaid, and that’s you, Gabe. I invite you to come with me to work for a day,” Miller said. “Place a phone to the ear of an elderly woman as she takes her last breaths so her son, a truck driver thousands of miles away can say goodbye, his voice breaking. Kneel in the dirt to clean the wounds of a man living under a shipping container as he swats flies away from you, thanking you over and over… Hold the hands of a mother in her 90s as she pleads with you to take away her daughter’s cancer, whispering: ‘It’s not fair, give it to me instead’ … Comfort a nurse who just watched a 27-year old woman die in agony from metastatic cervical cancer, her wails turning into groans, then silence as her family wept… this is what hospice nurses do.”
Miller further criticized the cuts to Medicaid as inhumane. “Come with me and look into the eyes of my patients and tell them their lives don’t matter, tell them they deserve to drown in their own fluids, tell them they have to gasp for air and suffer from pain so unbearable they cannot move. I am a nurse and these are my actual Medicaid patients. Defunding Medicaid is not a policy choice, it is a death sentence and an imposition of cruelty and suffering.”
After the main press briefing, which also featured Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Mural, several other Adams County residents came forward with how Medicaid impacted them personally.
One of those residents, Patricia Moore said that Medicaid helped save her son’s life after he was in a near-fatal accident over the summer.
“If we had not gotten help from Medicaid, I don’t how we would have survived that, even though I was there with him every day,” Moore said, tearing up. “[Medicaid] paid for everything, including the traumatic brain injury program that helped him. My son works now, he’s a mechanic. Not everybody stays on Medicaid, but when you’re in a situation like that, you need help. I am so grateful for that help and I’m quite sure there are other parents who are in the same boat.”
Jenn Ochs, a disability rights advocate who is from the area, said Medicaid helped keep her alive.
“I’m really concerned with the proposed cuts for Medicaid, because really, Medicaid is the only reason I’m alive and not stuck at home,” Ochs told CTR. “With the cuts, what is going to happen to people who don’t get that funding? Medicaid makes it possible for people to live and if I didn’t have the support from Medicaid, I would not be able to live by myself, my family couldn’t afford to take care of me either.”
Ochs was diagnosed with a form of leukemia when she was 30, which left her disabled and reliant on a wheelchair.
Ochs said that Congress needs to understand that Medicaid is essential and that cutting it is not “low-hanging fruit”.
“We rely so much on it and there’s not even money currently in Medicaid, so how can they think cutting it would make it better?”
We have reached out to Rep. Gabe Evans’ office to see if he has any comment on the proposed cuts to Medicaid or any specific responses to the questions posed by his constituents. We have so far not heard back, but will update this article if and when Evans responds.
