6 days ago
MAGA Voter Regrets Medicaid Stance After Family Impact
As you likely know, Donald Trump signed his One Big, Beautiful Bill into law earlier this month, which includes major reductions in federal support for Medicaid. Ultimately, as reported by NPR, this will lead to about 12 million more people being without health insurance by 2034.
It doesn't take much brain power to understand why that would be a very, very bad thing.
Regardless, some people still struggle with the concept. One such person is the focus of this text exchange that recently went viral on Reddit:
In a retelling of a recent conversation between their brother and themself, this texter wrote, "I mentioned in the family chat that 300,000 kids in Iowa are on Medicaid - they will all lose coverage."
"My brother is like: well it least it's not touching Hawk-i, that's what my kids are on," they continued.
For those outside of Iowa, the state's Medicaid and children's health insurance program is largely known by its nickname: Healthy and Well-Kids in Iowa or... hawk-i. So, upon learning his children's healthcare is in jeopardy, the brother responds with, "What? They better not."
This is all made worse by the fact that the brother, apparently, has been a big proponent of cutting Medicaid. "Dude has been banging the drum for this stupid spending bill for weeks and didn't even realize he was rooting for his own kids losing their insurance," the texter concludes.
Mining through the nearly 1,500 comments, a common frustration came from those who have seen stories of people voting against their own interests too many times before.
Others questioned the brother's morality and wondered aloud why he was OK with children losing their health insurance (as long as they weren't his kids).
"He never had a single thought about other people. The whole thing was about himself," Prosthemadera agreed. "Whether someone else's family will suffer, how many people will die, he doesn't give a shit."
Additionally, "I'm 57 years old, no children, not religious. I have never taken a dime in Medicaid, food stamps, Section 8, or any public programs. I've never even filed for unemployment. But I want my tax dollars to help that guy's kids get healthcare and schooling, and housing. Guess I'm a libtard," weenie2323 said.
Elsewhere in the comments, people shared similar stories of dealing with their own MAGA family members:
"This is my mom," cheongyanggochu-vibe said. "My disabled brother is on Medicaid, which is supplemented by her state. She thinks that because he gets it from the state, he will be fine (even though the funds are majority federal)."
"A colleague of mine lives in Utah, and he meets the threshold for Medicaid; everything is covered. I asked him, 'Say, aren't you worried about this bill working its way through Congress? You could lose your healthcare.' He said, 'What, no, that's for waste fraud and abuse, I'm on the state health care, not Medicaid.'"
Overall, little sympathy was expressed.
"Medicaid literally saved my life. Fuck these people," MidnightNo1766 added.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
