Over a million Texans will lose health insurance under Trump’s big beautiful bill, says U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, ranking member on the House Health Subcommittee. Those most affected? Children, the elderly, the mentally ill, and the poor.
Local general pediatrician and health advocate Kimberly Avila Edwards spoke in bleak terms at Doggett’s press conference Friday, May 30. Three out of every four Texans on Medicaid are children, she explained, meaning 3.1 million children statewide and almost 75,000 in Doggett’s Austin district.
“For children, for my patients, Medicaid is not just insurance, it is a lifeline,” Avila Edwards said. “The house-passed budget reconciliation bill threatens to dismantle this lifeline, and it’s going to have devastating consequences.”
About 90,000 Texans are in nursing homes and more than 770,000 elders receive community-based services in the state. With two out of every three nursing home residents in Texas paid for by Medicaid, the bill will have “serious effects on senior care” across Texas, said George Linial, president of LeadingAge Texas.
The cuts will also hit mentally ill Austinites, said Jeff Richardson, CEO of local mental health provider Integral Care, at the press conference. And as the largest payer for mental health services in the country, slashing Medicaid “is not just a trim on our safety net,” Richardson said. “It’s cutting a giant hole in an already frayed system.”
“These are truly life and death decisions.” – Paul Scott, CEO of the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians
“As someone who has witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of underfunded mental health services, I can attest to the significant financial consequences that arise from ignoring this critical issue,” said Richardson. “The financial toll is undeniable, but the human cost – worsening symptoms, strained families, lost potential – cuts even deeper.”
The Food Bank Network is another organization working hand in hand with Medicaid to keep Texans healthy. Representing the Central Texas Food Bank, VP of Government Affairs Beth Corbett said that more than half a million Central Texans face food insecurity across the 21 counties the food bank partners with. Changes proposed in this bill would impact as many as 806,000 Texans who may see a substantial reduction in benefits or no longer qualify for SNAP, she said.
Corbett said her organization knows from experience that when access to federal programs decreases, demand at food banks skyrockets.
Paul Scott, CEO of the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, said the impact to musicians could be fatal. Scott said musicians under HAAM save an average of $8,200 a year on health insurance premiums. As Austin musicians earn an average income of less than $31,000 a year, “that makes a huge difference in the choices they have to make every single day.”
“With this bill, with the tax enhancements going away, insurance premiums will go up by at least 75%, and so that $8,200 in savings will be wiped away,” says Scott. “These are truly life and death decisions, and the impact of the tax enhancements not being renewed is going to completely jeopardize the health of individuals.”
Despite these warnings from community leaders and experts, Congressman Doggett wrapped up the conference with a message of hope: “I believe there’s still time to contact the Senate,” he said. “There’s still hope that we can turn at least some of the worst provisions of this bill around.”
What to do in the meantime? “The immediate thing is to work with us,” Doggett said, “to send a message to the Senate that this is just unacceptable. That we cannot have 14 million Americans lose their health care coverage.”
This article appears in June 13 • 2025.