Nearly 268,000 Hoosiers are about to lose Medicaid, 128,000 of them are about to lose SNAP benefits, and everyone is going to pay the price for the cruelty, warn the very people who’re going to get hit the hardest.
More than 30 convened on disability rights organization Everybody Counts’s Merrillville headquarters Saturday afternoon to take part in the Families First call-to-action event, one of nine around Indiana and more across the country. Inclement weather paused a march to Methodist Hospitals Southlake campus from Everybody Counts, but the passion and fear in the room couldn’t be contained.
Becky Hascom, of the NWI Interfaith Action Network, drilled down the statistics: One in four of the 1.85 million Hoosiers on Medicaid will lose coverage, and two of every three nursing home residents, or 66%, rely on Medicaid for their housing. Hascom also pointed out that President Donald Trump’s giant bill that Congress passed removes minimal staffing requirements in nursing homes.
State Senator Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, addresses the crowd during a rally of faith, labor, and community leaders at the Families First National Day of Action in the Everybody Counts building in Merrillville. The group demonstrated how federal cuts to essential health and food programs will hurt their community on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (John Smierciak / for the Post-Tribune)
Additionally, slightly fewer than half of all births in Indiana were paid for with Medicaid, and 44% of the state’s differently abled people rely on the program, she said.
And the hits don’t stop there: 128,000 Hoosiers are going to lose their SNAP benefits — 13,000 of them in Lake County alone and many of them children.
“They’re stealing lunch and breakfast right off students’ trays,” Hascom said.
Sixteen hospitals — largely in rural areas, such as Franscican Health Rennselaer — have been identified as at risk of shuttering because they’re in the top 10% of Medicaid payer hospitals that have also had three consecutive years of negative total margin, according to a handout Hascom provided. If that happens, those who’ve lost their Medicaid will have to travel at least 45 minutes to an emergency room, and those hospitals, because they’re serving more people who can’t pay, will pass those costs on to those who can.
“The ‘Screw you, I got mine’ doesn’t work,” Indiana Senator Rodney Pol, D-Portage, said. “And all of these cuts were done even before (Trump’s) bill passed. How are we going to manage this with more cuts on the way? ‘We’ll just do it next year’? That’s not leadership.
“We’re cutting funding to spend more.”
Everybody Counts Founder Teresa Torres said the focus of their work is advocating for systemic changes and helping differently abled people achieve their goals. Walking them through the healthcare system is awful when it’s working. With Governor Mike Braun’s Senate Enrolled Act 2, it’s worse.
Teresa Torres leads the crowd in a chant during a rally of faith, labor, and community leaders at the Families First National Day of Action in the Everybody Counts building in Merrillville. The group demonstrated how federal cuts to essential health and food programs will hurt their community on Saturday. July 26, 2025. (John Smierciak / for the Post-Tribune)
“We don’t know what the hell to do. We’re walking them through a maze of mustard and molasses,” Torres said. “We saw this coming, but we never expected it to be this far-reaching.”
Veteran Larry Echols, who works as a nurse as well as with Everybody Counts, said he joined the Army to protect and defend the Constitution. He can’t stand by and let what’s happening continue.
“We have many, many veterans whose only safeguard is Medicaid, Echols said. “I cannot understand how people who are elected to take care of the welfare of the people can take healthcare away so that Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk can buy a new plane or a yacht. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand why these people want to take away what’s rightfully ours.”
Jordan Musenbrock of Everybody Counts (left) listens to Leslie Hawker (right) as she addresses the crowd during a rally of faith, labor, and community leaders at the Families First National Day of Action in the Everybody Counts building in Merrillville. The group demonstrated how federal cuts to essential health and food programs will hurt their community on Saturday. July 26, 2025. (John Smierciak / for the Post-Tribune)
On any given day, 20 to 25 veterans commit suicide a day, Echols added, and more will be at risk if their Medicaid is gone because not all vets qualify for the VA.
“Then they have no hope,” Echols said. “They figure, ‘No one’s out there for me, there’s nothing out there for me, I may as well end it.’ I don’t accept that, and I encourage all of us to speak up because politicians fear when we have one voice.”
Hospital worker Zachary Greenwood, whose daughter has sickle cell anemia, said he feels like a “dog chasing its tail” trying to get her back on some sort of Medicaid. Right now, he has an $86,000 bill at a Chicago hospital and has been working overtime to try to keep afloat.
“If Medicaid is being cut, that means the budget is being cut at the hospital I work at and people are going to lose jobs,” Greenwood said. “It is going to mean a big cut. I’m not sure why they’re doing this to the middle-class and lower-class people. This is going to take a toll on a lot of people. That’s not right.
“To be honest, it’s already taking effect. They’re already cutting hours. It’s going downhill.”
Larry Echols, an Army veteran, addresses the crowd during a rally of faith, labor, and community leaders at the Families First National Day of Action in the Everybody Counts building in Merrillville. The group demonstrated how federal cuts to essential health and food programs will hurt their community on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (John Smierciak / for the Post-Tribune)
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Mrvan to hold health roundtable
What: U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, will hold a Medicaid roundtable with local Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs) and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to discuss cuts to Medicaid and impacts to patients in communities across Northwest Indiana.
When: 10 a.m. Tuesday
Where: Porter-Starke Services – Valparaiso Campus, 701 Wall Street, Valparaiso