Comment: State can’t ignore need after federal cuts to health care
Published 1:30 am Saturday, March 7, 2026
By Sterling Harders and Jilma Meneses / For The Herald
Last year, President Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress passed H.R. 1, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill, a generationally damaging bill that will profoundly harm hundreds of thousands of people in Washington state when it fully takes effect.
Nationwide, millions of Americans will lose their health coverage through Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act. In Washington alone, an estimated 390,000 residents are expected to be pushed off coverage, including roughly 30,000 refugees and asylum seekers from countries such as Ukraine, Nicaragua and Syria, who have paid into the Medicaid System. Among them are 3,000 seniors and people with disabilities who will not only lose health insurance, but also the life-sustaining long-term care services that allow them to survive.
Losing long-term care is not an abstract policy outcome. It means losing help with the most basic tasks of daily living: eating, bathing, dressing, and taking medications. It means risking eviction from nursing homes and adult family homes. It means families scrambling to fill impossible gaps in care.
The human cost will be staggering. Thousands of families will face crushing medical bills. Preventive care will disappear. Diagnoses will be missed. Conditions will worsen. People will end up in emergency rooms and ambulances at far greater cost to all taxpayers, affecting everyone. Some will die. This is not only a moral failure. It is fiscally reckless.
These changes begin in October. It is February. The urgent question is: why aren’t Washington state’s Democrats and Republicans using every tool available to prevent this looming crisis?
Gov. Bob Ferguson’s proposed budget would restore care for 500 affected clients. That is a start, but it is nowhere near enough. Legislative leaders can and should increase that number in final budget negotiations.
Refugees and asylees are lawfully in the United States for humanitarian reasons; they fled violence, war and persecution; people who lost their homes and livelihoods. The U.S. government welcomed them with the promise of safety and a chance to rebuild. They are permitted to work in the U.S. and pay federal and state taxes on income earned, including Medicaid. Studies show refugees and asylees have a positive impact on our economy, contributing more to public finances than they receive. Further, pursuant to long-established U.S. law, they are eligible for Medicaid provided they meet the other eligibility requirements similar to U.S. citizens. We should not rob them of the benefits for which they have paid.
They are people like Olga, an 86-year-old widow who fled the war in Ukraine. She is mostly blind, unable to walk, and relies entirely on Medicaid-funded caregivers to survive. They are people like Manuel, a ninth-grader with Down syndrome who was granted asylum after fleeing violence in Nicaragua with his sister. He depends on long-term care services for daily living and medical support. They are people like Anastasia, a 22-year-old whose family emigrated from Ukraine. Born with a neurological disorder that causes daily seizures, she relies on Medicaid-funded care for medication and monitoring that keeps her alive.
At the same time, immigrants and U.S. citizens across the country are living in fear amid aggressive and chaotic federal immigration enforcement. Sweeping raids and arrests have created uncertainty in communities nationwide, while the Trump administration continues to promise expanded operations in cities and states across the country.
The cycle is devastating. Medicaid cuts that first strip coverage from certain, qualified immigrants will eventually affect others as well. Meanwhile, those federal savings are redirected to fund expanded immigration enforcement and tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.
Washington has a choice. Our legislators can accept these harms as inevitable; or they can act. They can pass a budget that protects Washington residents from losing health coverage and long-term care. They can ensure that refugees, asylees, seniors, people with disabilities, and caregivers are not abandoned.
This is a defining moment. If Washington truly values dignity, compassion, and fiscal responsibility, it must fund care for all who call this state home and have rightfully earned that care. History will remember whether we stood by, or stood up.
Sterling Harders is the president of SEIU 775. Jilma Meneses is the president and CEO of Catholic Community Services.
