For immigrants like me, these are scary times.
Since Donald Trump became president earlier this year, as many as eight Utah families per week have called the Department of Workforce Services to cancel their Medicaid benefits — but it’s not because they don’t need these vital health services.
Rather, it’s because they’re scared. And so am I. We’re scared by what we saw and heard in Charlottesville — and the administration’s unwillingness to stand up to violence and hate. Scared that friends, neighbors and children — many of whom have been helped by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — will be forced to leave the only country they have ever called home. And scared that Republicans’ latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act will put our lives in even greater danger.
When I left Mexico City almost nine years ago, I carried with me the hope of the American dream: that if I worked hard and played by the rules, I could achieve my full potential and make a positive impact on my community. I joined my father and sisters in Salt Lake City and enrolled at the University of Utah to study social work. I became the chronic management coordinator at Comunidades Unidades — where I connect and educate the Latino community about ways to manage prediabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and other chronic diseases.
When I think of the ACA, I think of the hundreds of thousands of Utahns, especially folks with chronic conditions, who cannot live without its critical protections. I think of people like my father, who has high blood pressure and prediabetes, requiring him to have checkups every few months. These checkups are covered by Medicaid funding — which would have been cut by $175 billion under Republicans' latest health care plan, the Cassidy-Graham bill.
I also think about my own health. During my last physical exam, in April, I was told I had to undergo emergency surgery to get my gallbladder removed, as an infection had been detected in my kidneys. The surgery came with a $20,000 price tag. Fortunately, because of the ACA’s marketplace subsidies that help almost 9 million people like me afford coverage, my insurance covered it. But the Cassidy-Graham bill would have cut these subsidies entirely and replace them with block grants that would provide at least $41 billion less funding by 2026. And after 2026, that funding would disappear completely.
I work every day to keep families healthy and united — but this administration and Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to rip us apart. This latest push by Republican senators was a last-ditch effort to rush a partisan, destructive bill through Congress — but they can’t hide the damaging truth: that just like the failed bills that came before it, this bill would have resulted in millions of people losing health care coverage they desperately need.
This bill was the worst repeal bill we’ve seen yet. We can’t afford to be scared anymore. We have to speak out. So I urge you to join me in calling on Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch and demanding they support healthcare reform that will actually make a positive difference in our lives.
Veronica Zavala-Orozco is an immigrant and resident of Salt Lake City.