DeSaulnier town hall paints bleak healthcare landscape a year after passage of 'Big, Ugly Bill'
The office of U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier hosted a virtual town hall Monday to discuss how H.R. 1, better known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, has affected healthcare nationally and locally.
H.R. 1 was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025. The act permanently extended tax cuts from 2017, slashed federal funding to Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income individuals and families, and eliminated subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance, better known as Obamacare.
Town hall panelist Vaishu Jawahar, policy director at Protect Our Care, a national advocacy group for universal healthcare, said that while H.R.1 slashed trillions from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, the spending bill doled out billions in tax breaks to millionaires and corporations.
Since the passage of H.R. 1, more than one million Californians have lost their Medicaid or Affordable Care Act health insurance, according to Jawahar. DeSaulnier, who referred to H.R. 1 as the “…