Hands Off Medicaid!

media release: Congress is threatening to cut billions of dollars from Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, which provides critical health care and social services to 1.2 million children and adults in Wisconsin. How can we come together and demand that lawmakers protect this lifeline?

It's so easy to feel alone in America in 2025. We're running on a deficit of good news; and, if you're like me, Medicaid cuts are foremost on your mind. In so many words, Congress has announced plans to cut federal Medicaid spending by nearly a trillion dollars. Medicaid is social infrastructure; a series of healthcare programs that shape the way millions of Wisconsinites live, whether they're beneficiaries or not.

You’re probably one of them. You or someone you love depends on Medicaid – which means you have the power to fight to protect it.

Only one force has been capable of winning times like these: solidarity. That looks like joining together with our neighbors to learn what's happening, sharing how it affects us, and learning how the people around us are similarly affected—this is the foundation of any movement powerful enough to resist and endure. The foundation of movements like these is storytelling: sharing the ways big policy issues impact our lives.

That's why Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America is inviting you and the rest of our Dane County community to a Hands Off Medicaid! Town Hall on Saturday, May 10. We're meeting at the Catholic Multicultural Center at 6:00pm (doors at 5:30 pm) and I hope you'll consider joining us.

Directly-impacted residents, local legislators, lawmakers, and advocates will speak at a community town hall event to discuss massive federal Medicaid cuts now being debated in Congress, and chart a path forward for the movement to stop them.

RSVP here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/hands-off-medicaid-town-hall  

** Please note: the building is ADA accessible, and we are working to provide captioning and translation. Please contact dsamadison@gmail.com with your accessibility needs.

Speaker Bios:

Timothy Faust, Citizen Action of WI Healthcare Coordinator

Before Timothy was our Citizen Action of Wisconsin's healthcare coordinator, he traveled the country for nearly fifteen years talking to people about how health policy shapes their lives. He wrote a book, Health Justice Now, and has written for national publications like Rolling Stone and VICE. Timothy says "I saw how many people know they're being screwed over so someone else can make a buck, but don't quite understand how. My hope is that this event will help clarify what's happening, why it's happening, and—most importantly—what we're going to do about it".

Francesca Hong

state representative, Wisconsin’s 76th Assembly District

Francesca Hong is a service industry worker, a renter, a single mom, and a community organizer. Hong grew up in Madison as the daughter of hard-working immigrants, and later became an executive chef and restaurateur. In 2020, she became the first Asian-American elected to the Wisconsin State Legislature. Now she represents the city’s downtown, east and north side in the State Assembly. Hong's deep understanding of the struggles of working-class people and their families inform her ongoing commitment to creating social, racial, and economic justice.