President Trump and the Republican majority in Congress want to fund a massive tax cut for wealthy Americans and corporations by enacting catastrophic cuts in Medicaid that would threaten health care for more than 72 million people. In fact, they are proposing at least $880 billion and up to $2 trillion in Medicaid cuts over ten years. This would be devastating for low income children and adults as well as new mothers, people with disabilities and seniors who need long-term care.

Children, people of color, working adults, and Americans with disabilities should not lose their health care so the rich can get another tax break. Protect Our Care and our partners around the country are not going to let that happen.

THE “HANDS OFF MEDICAID” CAMPAIGN

Protect Our Care has launched the “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign, a multi-faceted lobbying and communications campaign to protect Medicaid. The campaign includes extensive Capitol Hill lobbying, a significant paid advertising program informed by new public opinion research, and social media influencer and direct mail campaigns. In addition, our state teams are working with local partners in targeted congressional districts to generate earned media coverage through press events, the placement of op-eds, the promotion of state-specific factsheets, the amplification of personal stories, and other tactics. The campaign is off to a great start in all of the following ways.

IN THE STATES

In just the first few weeks of this campaign, our teams of experienced communications and advocacy professionals in fifteen states have:

• Hosted 44 events
• Placed 17 op-eds  
• Generated 125 clips
• Featured events with 12 Members of Congress
• Incorporated 136 advocates and storytellers into these events
• Joined by 10 state and local elected officials for 9 events across 6 states

This state and local earned media program, which includes not only the voices of elected officials but also those of the people who will be most impacted by Medicaid cuts, is essential to the success of our “inside the Beltway” lobbying efforts.

ON CAPITOL HILL

Our best-in-class team of health policy lobbyists, research and communications professionals are working closely with leaders in Congress to develop and implement strategies to protect Medicaid, particularly throughout the “budget reconciliation” process. We are in daily contact with congressional staff and Members of Congress to coordinate strategies and leverage key opportunities such as Senate-confirmed nominations and Congressional hearings. We are also frequently asked by congressional staff to connect them with local health care storytellers in their home districts who can appear at press events with their members who are Medicaid champions. In addition, our leadership and senior staff have testified before Congress and briefed elected officials and staff. For example:

• Founder and Chair Leslie Dach testified before the House Ways and Means Committee in February 2025
• Leslie Dach briefed Democratic Senators and Education and Workforce Committee Democrats on winning messaging strategies 
• Protect Our Care staff regularly brief Committee staff on messaging research and serve as thought partners on legislative and hearing strategy
• Protect Our Care staff regularly brief health care legislative staff on Medicaid and how to navigate debates over the program
• Before key hearings, Protect Our Care provides briefing materials for Committee offices
• Before District Work Periods, Protect Our Care provides briefing materials to Members with resources for how to conduct health care events with constituents 
• Our staff brief Members of Congress and their staff on poll results and related messaging guidance
• Our senior staff briefed and are in regular communication with Governors’ DC-based staff, who can communicate the impact of Medicaid cuts to their states’ Congressional delegations. We also hosted a press conference with the Democratic Governors Association featuring five governors who talked about how vital Medicaid is for their states and detailed the devastating impacts of the proposed cuts. 

RESOURCES AND PUBS

Our Policy, Research and Digital teams have already produced numerous fact sheets, reports and toolkits for elected officials, the media and our coalition partners. In addition, we have released and held numerous poll briefings for key stakeholders about the findings of our new poll about public attitudes toward health care. Among other things, our poll found that there is broad opposition across party lines to major elements of the Republican health care agenda, including among Trump voters. Most importantly, 78% of all voters, including 67% of Trump voters are either strongly or somewhat opposed to major cuts to Medicaid. The following is just a sampling of our new resources.

• New Poll: Key Issues in Healthcare: Where Voters Stand  
• Digital Toolkit
• REPORT: The Republican War on Health Care: Medicaid Cuts for Millions, Tax Cuts for the Ultra-Wealthy
• State-by-State Fact Sheets
• Congressional District Fact Sheets
• Reminder: MAGA Republicans Want to Raise Costs and Rip Away Health Care

SUPPORT FOR COALITIONS

Protect Our Care is proud to work closely with a wide range of health care advocacy organizations on all levels that share a mission to protect and strengthen health care. We are all in this fight together and we all bring different strengths and capabilities to this fight. If we align those capabilities in a strategic, cohesive and collaborative manner, we can win and win together. These are just a few of the ways that Protect Our Care is committed to working in coalition.

• Coalition Tables. We convene, chair or cochair, and/or participate in a number of health care coalitions committed to defending the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
• “9:45” Stakeholder List & Calls. We maintain an email listserv of more than 600 health care advocates, policy experts, union leaders, and others in the progressive health care space. Twice weekly (at 9:45 a.m.), we convene a conference call with our co-hosts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, to inform the list of the health care news of the day, review our policy priorities for the week, and provide updates on upcoming activities in the coalition.
• Deep-Dive Briefings for Partners. When there is a particularly urgent call to action, we convene the health care and progressive groups for a deep-dive discussion on the upcoming course of action. We do this around pending legislation, nomination proceedings, and ahead of elections. We provide messaging, research, polling, strategy, and opportunities to get involved in upcoming activities.
• Creating earned media platforms for local voices and organizations. We regularly host press events to highlight how various policies affect the health care of different constituency groups, and we rely on the work of organizations in those respective spaces to help us paint that picture. 

IN THE NEWS

These are only a few of the dozens of stories about the Medicaid defense campaign in national, state and local media as of February 19, 2025. 

National Coverage

• Washington Post: Democrats Move to Protect Medicaid, Wary of Trump’s Looming Changes.
• Fox News: First on Fox: Pro-Democrat outside group targets Republican lawmakers with ‘Hands off Medicaid’ blitz
• CNN.com: Moving past repealing Obamacare, Republicans still plan major health care cuts

State and Local Coverage

• KBAK (CBS) – Bakersfield, CA: Medicaid Rally Outside Rep. Valadao’s Office
• LoHud: Healthcare Workers Speak Out Against Medicaid Cuts at Mike Lawler’s Office 
• West Virginia Watch: West Virginia health care advocates decry proposed cuts to Medicaid

We will continue to leverage our earned media expertise to shape an accurate public narrative about Medicaid and demonstrate to members of Congress that there is energetic and passionate opposition in their districts to Medicaid cuts.

PAID MEDIA

The “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign includes a multi-million dollar paid media program through cable and network television nationally, in Washington, D.C., and in targeted states and congressional districts. This will include: 1.) Streaming services like YouTube and ROKU across the country; 2.) Direct mail, rural and other targeted radio advertising; 3.) Digital advertising across platforms targeting the Medicaid population in areas around nursing homes and rural hospitals; 4.) Out-of-home advertising including billboards, mobile billboards, and bus stop wraps; 5.) A paid radio tour at which POC leadership talked about the impact of proposed cuts to Medicaid. Following are examples of two recent 15-second ads: Watch “Choice: Seniors v. Tax Breaks” Here and Watch “Choice: Kids v. Tax Breaks” Here

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We have a sophisticated, strategic and proven model for policy advocacy. We have the best health care lobbyists and communications professionals in the nonprofit sector. We have extensive experience with legislative battles over health care policy. We have a large and growing network of health care storytellers and activists who are willing to fight for health care for themselves, their families and their neighbors. We have strong and active relationships with our coalition partners on the national, state and local levels. And we have new polling that shows that there is widespread, bipartisan support for Medicaid. We can win this fight, but…..

We can’t win the fight to protect Medicaid without your support. 

Additional philanthropic resources are urgently needed if we are to save the Medicaid program from the most devastating cuts in the 60-year history of the program and protect health care for tens of millions of people.

Donations of any amount and of any type will help. You can learn about the many ways to give on our Giving page. We can accept gifts and grants from individuals, foundations and all types of organizations.

For those seeking opportunities to make tax exempt, charitable donations, the Protect Our Care Education Fund, the 501(c)(3) arm of Protect Our Care, will also conduct an extensive, multi-platform, multi-strategy campaign to educate the public, the media, and policy makers about Medicaid. We will counter the misinformation about the program that Republicans will spread with the help of conservative donors and media.

If you have any questions about how to donate please contact our Chief Development Officer, Matt Farrey, at [email protected] 

AND THERE’S MORE….

In addition to our active Medicaid defense work, we have also launched our “Health Care Sabotage Tracker” to document in real time all of the damage the Trump administration is doing to health care through its attacks on public health, the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and a wide range of health equity programs.