Newly elected U.S. Senator Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) has a message for anyone who thinks Medicaid cuts only affect people on Medicaid: think again. In an interview on MS NOW on Friday, El-Sayed warned that the cuts are "going to be a disaster for everybody," because insured Americans will end up paying for them through higher premiums.
The hosts asked what Democrats should do first once they take office. El-Sayed rattled off three immediate priorities: ending the Iran war, ending the tariff regime, and "stopping the nuclear bomb that's about to go off in our healthcare system with these Medicaid cuts." That last one, he made clear, is not a distant concern.
El-Sayed Explains the Premium Chain
Here's the logic, in his words: "It's not just people who are losing Medicaid, which is bad enough. But it's not like when people lose their Medicaid, they don't get sick anymore."
They do get sick. And when they do, they show up at the hospital at the most expensive point possible, the emergency room. "And then the emergency room has to figure out how to pay for it. So they push this back on to insured folks," El-Sayed said.
The result, he predicted: "So your insurance prices, premiums now go up double digits and you get this cycle which is going to make it unaffordable for everybody."
Worth noting: these are El-Sayed's own projections. He did not cite a source or a specific figure for the cuts.
Murray and Pelosi Hit Medicaid Cuts
Democrats had already been pressing this issue well before the midterms. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a post on X that "the millions of Americans priced out of their plans or kicked off Medicaid" are interested in health care, and accused Republicans of passing Medicaid cuts. She said families had seen premiums "double, triple or even worse" after enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits expired. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had likewise criticized Republicans over Medicaid cuts, rising premiums and rural hospital closures.
Hospitals Face Strain From Cuts
The hospital side of the equation is where the numbers get real. A March report from the watchdog group Public Citizen found that nearly 450 hospitals face a high risk of closing or cutting services due to more than $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program under President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Medicaid covers about a fifth of all hospital spending, the report said.
That's the backdrop for El-Sayed's warning. When hospitals lose a fifth of their funding and still have to treat whoever walks through the emergency room doors, someone has to absorb the cost. His bet is that it lands on insured Americans in the form of double-digit premium increases, creating a cycle that makes coverage unaffordable for everyone.
