Poised to harm all Pennsylvanians with rising costs and potentially limited services as a by-product – along with devastating impacts for those who rely on Medicaid and SNAP benefits – President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ was scrutinized during a press call organized by Defend America Action.
Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and Laura Brussard, a health care advocate from Dickenson Township in Cumberland County participated in a press call Wednesday to highlight the catastrophic impact Trump’s cuts to health care and food assistance are having on local communities.
“I want to be clear: Even if you don’t use Medicaid or SNAP, these cuts will impact you and your family. This Republican tax plan will wreck our health care system and hurt vulnerable Pennsylvanians. It will blow up the federal deficit…and they’re putting it on a credit card for future generations to pay,” said Davis.
He said Medicaid covers about 65% of the cost for gun violence victims across the country.
“Millions of Americans including seniors in nursing homes and hundreds of thousands of kids will lose their health care coverage” as a result of this bill, Davis said.
He also estimated more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians could lose health care coverage and roughly 150,000 could lose access to food assistance through SNAP as a result of the Trump Administration’s legislation.
“These cuts will cause real pain across Pennsylvania,” Davis said.
SNAP provides more than $365 million monthly in food assistance benefits that support grocers, food retailers in every county as well as Pennsylvania farmers and benefit recipients who need it, according to Davis. Many rural hospitals rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open, he added.
“I’ve spent years in local government seeing firsthand how programs like Medicaid and SNAP keep families afloat. The more than $1 trillion in federal cuts are devastating. People will lose access to doctors, prescriptions and groceries they rely on to survive,” said Bob Harvie in an email.
Harvie is president of Bucks County Commissioners and the Democratic candidate running to represent the First Congressional District in the 2026 midterm elections.
Incumbent Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick did not return a request for comment.
Harvie said in Pennsylvania these legislation cuts are not “abstract numbers on a spreadsheet,” and the cuts will cause real pain in local communities.
“These cuts mean seniors choosing between medicine, rent and a nursing home they can afford to live in; parents skipping meals so their kids can eat, hospitals closing and healthcare premiums across the board rising,” Harvie said.
Pennsylvania state Sen. Stephen Santarsiero said in an email “the federal government has shirked its responsibility to take care of our most vulnerable citizens by cutting Medicaid and SNAP.”
“The question should not be how the state can make up for these cuts. The question must be what Rep. [Brian] Fitzpatrick and Senators [Dave] McCormick and [John] Fetterman are doing to step up for impacted Bucks County residents,” Santarsiero said.
