Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) was a no-show at a community town hall in his district Friday night – but that didn’t stop his constituents from telling him exactly what they thought.
“We need Gabe Evans to promise his constituents that he will vote down any and all cuts to Medicaid,” said Diane Byrne, President of Colorado WINS (a state employee union) and moderator of the meeting. “Medicaid cuts will drive up health insurance costs for everyone. Nursing homes and hospitals will close, especially in rural areas.”
It was standing room only in the multipurpose space at the Thornton Community Center Friday evening. Overflow parking spilled out onto the street as more than 120 people gave up what traditionally is happy hour to communicate with Evans.
“About 50% of the kids I see are on Medicaid,” said Dr. Matt Guerrieri, a Denver-based pediatrician who says he sees many kids and families from Evans’s 8th Congressional District (CD-8). “Any cut to Medicaid is an enormous threat to children in Colorado.”
“Have you ever had to choose between gas and your kid’s antibiotics? That’s what’s happening in CD-8 today,” said Kathia Garcia, a parent of two kids on Medicaid and an organizer for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote to cut as much as $880 billion from the country’s Medicaid budget, a move that would gut the program, which provides health insurance to more than 80 million people nationwide. In Colorado, Medicaid covers one in seven adults, one in three children, three in five nursing home residents, and three in 10 people with disabilities – a total of 1.2 million Coloradans.
The Colorado Hospital Association sounded the alarm weeks ago that deep cuts to Medicaid would result in hospital closings and extreme lack of access to basic healthcare, especially in rural areas. In CD-8, which runs the gamut from urban to rural, approximately 21% of the population is on Medicaid. The five short-term acute care hospitals in the district are dependent on it. As are most of the 18 nursing home facilities.
“I have lived in this district for 25 years. … the nursing homes rely on Medicaid in this district. What is going to happen to those people?” asked one woman in the audience who didn’t give her name.
“We will see people leaving nursing facilities and becoming homeless,” answered Byrne. “We have about 100,000 people in long-term care, and it’s terrifying to think what will happen.“
Frustration at Evans’s ongoing refusal to make himself available to constituents was palpable Friday night, with audience members recounting their attempts at making contact.
“I was in D.C. at this office in February [with a group of pediatricians] said Dr. Guerrier. “He didn’t grant us a meeting. Even in person, he’s hard to find.”
“I call every day,” said a woman in the audience who gave her name as Judy. “How are we going to reach him; how are we going to let him know what you’re telling us?”
“It would be nice if our representative was here to answer these questions,” said Garcia.
“Do your job. Do your job. Do your job, the crowd chanted at one point.
Evans held a virtual town hall earlier this month, but since elected, has yet to attend an in-person town hall. His office has said he plans to communicate in constructive ways with constituents.
While the questions and comments came from a culturally diverse audience of young and old, union and nonunion, service-providers and service-receivers, several universal points were repeated.
First, cutting Medicaid was not a way to save money. That in fact the cuts would end up costing more in the long run.
“I wish Gabe Evans would stop spreading misinformation about fraud and abuse [in the Medicaid system],” said Chris deGruy Kennedy of the Bell Policy Center. “Anyone who has studied the issue for more than five minutes can tell you that Medicaid does a better job at cost control than the commercial insurance sector.”
“There’s a huge economic downside to cutting access to preventative medicine,” said Guerrier, noting that he recently had a 7-year-old patient whose family had lost Medicaid and couldn’t afford her $500 asthma inhaler. “She ended up in the ICU at Children’s Hospital. And who’s paying for that?”
Second, the crowd was universal in their understanding that the cuts were aimed not at running a more efficient government, but to pay for tax cuts for the very rich.
“You’re cutting our services to give millionaires and billionaires more money,” said Stephanie Felix-Sowy, President of SEIU Local 105, the largest healthcare union in Colorado.
“[Cost savings] is all red herrings,” said Kennedy. “It’s just about giant tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and it’s not right.”
And finally, the audience and the presenters agreed that cuts to Medicaid would hurt all Coloradans, not just those who directly receive services.
“All of us will suffer,” said Byrne, “it will drive up the cost of health insurance for everyone.”
“Recession is a very serious possibility if the [Medicaid] cuts are made,” said Kennedy “You’re talking about taking $1-2 billion out of the state budget. … There’s just no way to recover.”
Evans was elected by around 2500 votes in November. In a district with roughly 21% Medicaid recipients, he has already voted in committee to approve sweeping cuts that have to include Medicaid, putting approximately 155,000 of his constituents in the crosshairs, more than 60 times his voting margin.
“Gabe Evans’ day of reckoning is coming fast,” said Sara Loflin, Executive Director of ProgressNow, “In a matter of days … the harm he’s doing to tens of thousands of Medicaid patients in his district becomes undeniable.”
CORRECTION 4/27/25: Chris deGruy Kennedy of the Bell Policy Center estimates that the proposed federal Medicaid cuts would result in a loss to the Colorado budget of between $1 – $2 billion per year, not $2 – $3 billion, as originally reported.
