Put People First! PA in The Nation

On May 30th, 2025, Put People First! PA members were published in The Nation talking about the effects of medicaid cuts and how the organization is fighting back. Click here for the article.

Politics / Rethinking Rural / May 30, 2025

Republicans’ “Big Beautiful” Medicaid Cuts Spur Rural Organizing Innovation
Taking away healthcare coverage isn’t just “morally wrong and politically suicidal,” in Senator Josh Hawley’s apt phrase. It’s also putting pressure on rural members of Congress.

By Erica Etelson

When Tammy Rosing, a homeless behavioral health adviser in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was dropped from Medicaid last year due to a bureaucratic snafu, it meant going without medication for a painful autoimmune disease. Only with the help of a team of social workers, volunteer advocates, and a state legislator was Rosing able to get her Medicaid restored. Debt collectors are still after her for a $400 medical bill she incurred during that gap in coverage.

Rosing is part of Put People First! PA, a grassroots group that mobilizes struggling rural and urban Pennsylvanians to defend and strengthen Medicaid. If the GOP’s proposed Medicaid budget cuts go through, legions of folks will be turning to groups like Put People First! for support.

Congress is on the verge of legislating the biggest Medicaid cut in the program’s 60-year history. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the budget reconciliation bill cuts roughly $880 billion from Medicaid, a move that will result in 8.6 million of the poorest Americans losing their healthcare coverage. That’s on top of the 5 million already projected to lose Medicaid coverage over the next decade as a result of other policy changes.

Despite being “morally wrong and politically suicidal,” as Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) put it, most Republican members of Congress appear poised to support, in Trump’s words, the “big beautiful bill.” But a rift between Republican hard-liners and moderates has opened up around this issue, and organizers are pressuring a couple dozen members of Congress, many serving in largely rural districts and states, who might be willing to break ranks.

Rural Americans have higher maternal and infant mortality rates, higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and stroke, and higher overdose deaths. One in five rural American adults is enrolled in Medicaid, a program that pays for 90 percent of opioid and fentanyl addiction treatment, 62 percent of nursing home stays, half of all births, and one in five hospital visits.

Rural hospitals are in crisis, with many operating at a loss, especially those in the 10 states that have not opted in to Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Since 2005, 193 rural hospitals have closed, and many more have eliminated unprofitable services such as hospice care and obstetrics, leaving women in labor to drive long distances to the nearest labor and delivery ward. In addition to stranding patients in medical deserts, hospital closures devastate local economies. In many rural areas, the local hospital is one of the largest employers, second only to public schools.

In the “Pennsylvania Wilds” region north of the Alleghenies, Put People First! PA has been organizing around Medicaid since 2014. It organizes uncovered Pennsylvanians using an innovative model that offers free, volunteer-staffed pop-up health clinics alongside assistance in applying for Medicaid or appealing a denial or termination of benefits. At these “people’s clinics” held at churches, housing projects, and food banks, Put People First! literally meets people where they’re at, building relationships and trust as an on-ramp toward political activation.

Put People First! invites clinic patients to participate in one of five Health Care Rights Committees across the state. There, they are able to connect with others coping with healthcare access crises and get plugged in to state and federal advocacy campaigns. Currently, the group is trying to pass a statewide bill that that would restore adult dental coverage cut from the state’s Medicaid program in 2011.

“A lot of rural people on Medicaid don’t have teeth because all they can get are cleanings or extractions, not root canals or other procedures,” says Harrison Farina, a volunteer coordinator for Put People First! Dental coverage can be life-changing and even lifesaving in the case of untreated abscesses.

Put People First! is also pushing for the creation of a Public Health Advocate that regulates hospitals and other healthcare and insurance companies for the public good. With the backing of the state’s attorney general, the public health advocate would be empowered to curb healthcare mergers and acquisitions that leave residents with a shortage of quality care. (In my 16,000-person town in California, a doctor wouldn’t refer my son for a much-needed MRI, citing the fact that there’s only one MRI machine and so its use must be rationed. In the nearby, extremely poor town of Covelo, average ambulance response time is one hour).

People First! empowers current and former Medicaid recipients to testify at legislative hearings and town halls, meet with legislators, and set the group’s priorities. Tammy Rosing got involved with the group in 2017, when Trump’s election led to her “political awakening.” It wasn’t long before Rosing concluded that “this isn’t just a Trump thing…neither party speaks to the needs of poor people. Change is going to come from below, not above, but only if we get organized.” Put People First! helped Rosing get her Medicaid restored, and Rosing is committed to using her experience to help others navigate the bureaucracy and to “make some real deep change.”

In addition to its statewide advocacy, Put People First! is also making sure that Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation hears from Medicaid recipients before casting their votes on the reconciliation bill. Its Nonviolent Medicaid Army is running a #MedicaidMonday social media campaign that invites people from across the country to share their stories of medical care, need, and neglect. Their message is clear and (one would hope) compelling: Taking away people’s healthcare is truly devastating.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear called proposed Medicaid cuts “an attack on rural America.” He’s right. It’s a betrayal of low-income people from Baltimore to Saginaw to the Central Valley of California. All to pay for extending tax cuts that further enrich the 1 percent—a 1 percent that can pay for private helicopter evacuation if a medical emergency finds them far from the nearest hospital.

Cutting Medicaid is about as “beautiful” as a burst appendix on the side of a county highway.

Media Advisory: Memorial Day Budget Deadline Looms; Medicaid Recipients in Pennsylvania Refuse to Die

CONTACT: 

Tammy Rosing | tammyrojas1977@gmail.com | 717-350-3224
Nijmie Zakkiyyah Dzurinko | nijmied@gmail.com | 215-667-0066

Memorial Day Budget Deadline Looms; Medicaid Recipients in Pennsylvania Refuse to Die 

Put People First! PA is the only organization in Pennsylvania that is both politically independent from both major parties AND specifically dedicated to building the leadership, unity and power of people who are on or excluded from Medicaid. 

WHO: Members of Put People First! PA’s Healthcare Rights Committees across 5 regions of Pennsylvania 

WHAT: The Medicaid Cut-offs Organizing Drive engages thousands across the state to organize to protect and expand Medicaid through #MedicaidMondays story sharing, People’s Clinics, Medicaid Appeals actions, Call-in Days, meetings with Congress, participation in Town Halls, demanding the restoration of the Adult Dental Benefit and other actions. 

WHEN: Ongoing

More than 3 million people in Pennsylvania get their healthcare through Medicaid. They live in all 67 counties – in rural, urban and suburban areas. According to the Department of Human Services, Medicaid covers 23% of all Pennsylvanians, 39% of children, 13% of seniors and 59% of nursing home residents. Anything that happens to Medicaid impacts families and communities of all racial and ethnic backgrounds and political affiliations.

Put People First! PA is a 13-year-old member-led and staff-free statewide organization. It is the only organization of its kind in the state led by people who are on or excluded from Medicaid, who know first hand that Medicaid cuts amount to policy murder. The organization has been fighting Medicaid cuts since the ending of pandemic protections under the Biden administration. Beginning on April 1, 2023, 25 million people across the country and more than 600,000 in Pennsylvania were purged from the Medicaid rolls in what the Biden administration called “the unwinding”. Nearly half of those cut off of Medicaid in Pennsylvania lost their healthcare over paperwork errors. 

Now working class people are facing new and deepening threats to their healthcare under the Trump administration, with an additional 13.7 million people slated to lose Medicaid under the House proposal.

Put People First! PA plays a crucial role in bringing Medicaid recipients, low-income residents, those who have been cut or otherwise excluded from Medicaid and others directly affected by these looming cuts to the front lines of the policy battle where their expertise, lived experience, passion and dedication can make an impact. Last year, the organization achieved a 93% success rate in winning appeals for its members who were cut off of Medicaid.

“I was cut off of Medicaid three times during the Biden administration, so I know firsthand the impact that these cuts are going to have,” remarked Harrison Farina, a leader in Clearfield County. 

“Medicaid is a life-line for working class families across the state like mine,” shared Tammy Rosing of Lancaster. “We need our state legislature to take proactive measures like restoring the Adult Dental Benefit in Medicaid.”

Put People First! PA is in touch with thousands of working class people across Pennsylvania most impacted by poverty, who struggle to access the care they need, who avoid going to the doctor, skip or ration medications, and are denied necessary treatments. 

“We won’t be relegated to the sidelines of this fight because we’re poor and on Medicaid,” asserted Anita Knisely-Durham of Jenkintown. “We can speak for ourselves, think for ourselves and act for ourselves. Healthcare is a human right!”

Williamsport Sun Gazette Op-Ed

On May 28th Northeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee Leader, Rebecca, was published in her local newspaper, Williamsport Sun-Gazette. Here’s the link to read and share and below is Rebecca’s powerful story.

My name is Rebecca. I’m a constituent of Meuser. I’m a factory worker. I’m a single mother. I’m part of the working poor. And I’m a leader with Put People First! PA.

My Daddy was a factory worker too. A foreman at a good union job, until Bill Clinton passed NAFTA and the company my Daddy worked for decided that it would rather have cheap overseas labor than American workers making a decent wage. Our family was homeless for a hot minute, but my Daddy’s work ethic saved us. He swallowed his pride and worked at a gas station until he could get his feet under him long enough to build a career as a truck driver. We didn’t get to see him all too often after that, but I’m forever grateful for the sacrifices he made for our family.

The thing of it is, that truck driving job led to two heart attacks and an early grave. My mom didn’t fare any better, dying 5 years before my Daddy did. I shouldn’t have buried both my parents before I turned forty. Poverty takes our people young.

Poverty took my brother too. A little over a month ago now — all the way to Alaska. Because there is no economic opportunity in Pennsylvania. I certainly can’t afford to go visit him or nothing. I don’t know if I’ll ever see my niece again. It breaks my heart to think of her growing up without family. Poverty keeps us isolated and alone.

I work 12-hour overnight shifts, making cable for power lines. I’m proud of the work I do, keeping the lights on for my fellow Americans. Whenever a hurricane or other natural disaster destroys our infrastructure, I’m working overtime. I shouldn’t be living paycheck to paycheck. It’s a damn crying shame that I can’t do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.

What are you politicians gonna do to fix this? My Daddy was a lifelong Republican. Didn’t do him a bit of good. Why should I vote for any of you?

You’re gonna get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse? You better not do it by kicking my kid off of Medicaid like Biden did. That’s right, Sleepy Joe took my child’s healthcare away. The only reason we got it back is cause Put People First! PA fought for us. Biden stole healthcare from 25 million Americans. Most of them still don’t have it back. I’m certain that hundreds if not thousands of people are dead because of it.

You wanna get rid of fraud, waste, and abuse? Start with the fat cats at the top! Start with the 20 trillion dollars in wasteful military spending. Trillion with a T. Where is all that money going? It damn sure ain’t going to our veterans. They can’t get the health care they need either.

The politicians aren’t coming to save us, no matter what they say. It’s high time ordinary Americans band together to get what we all need: good jobs and quality healthcare. Remember this: you only get what you’re organized to take!

REBECCA REITENBACH

Williamsport

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom

Southwest Thanksgiving Food Distribution ’24

On Saturday, November 23d, members of the Put People First! PA Southwest PA Healthcare Rights committee gathered at the Convention Center in Pittsburgh for the annual Thanksgiving food distribution from 8 am to 3 pm. We talked & listened to people coming there to get food and services, asking how their lives would be different if healthcare was a Human Right, listening to their healthcare stories and taking their contact information so we can follow up with conversations about how we can organize to change the profiteering healthcare system that does not meet our needs. Some of our members also used the services offered and received food. 

Several people shared stories about their healthcare struggles, and we will share these on Facebook as Medicaid Mondays. For instance, Amber shared a story about being treated for the wrong thing, which caused many problems. Yvette shared how her insurance doesn’t pay for the lenses for her glasses, only the frames. Rebecca said she should be on disability after an amputation rather than having to work to keep her healthcare. We thank each of these people for sharing their stories as well as those who wrote on our story wall –  how their lives would be if we had healthcare as a human right, rather than having it tied to work or being means-tested. We advocate for Medicaid for all! We believe in and fight for the human right to healthcare!

Are you in Southwest Pennsylvania and want to get involved? Contact Barbara at bawhite2012@gmail.com or Nijmie at nijmied@gmail.com!

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