Experts say Medicaid cuts passed by the U.S. House could result in millions of people losing health care — including more than 700,000 people in Michigan. 

Michigan resident Janae Wouldfolk says the cuts would change her life. A union liaison for AFSCME Local 140 who has worked at the Detroit Medical Center for 27 years, Wouldfolk cares for her 74-year-old mother and 19-year-old disabled son, Shemar.

On today’s episode of the Detroit Evening Report, she spoke with WDET’s Sascha Raiyn about her concerns. 

Wouldfolk says she’s used the knowledge she’s gained as an advocate and caregiver to help coworkers who needed help with health care coverage for themselves or loved ones. She says she knows many families who will be deeply impacted by the Medicaid cuts.

“You know, it’s a lot. It’s a struggle and if they do cut it, it’ll be a disaster,” she said.

The House passed the Trump administration budget last month. The bill will move to the Senate for a vote this week.

Other headlines for Tuesday, June 3, 2025:

• The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to restore the visas of four international college students — two at Wayne State and two at the University of Michigan. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the government, which has stripped visas from thousands of students across the country this spring and threatened to deport them. A federal judge dismissed the case after the Trump administration agreed not to terminate their status based solely on cursory background checks.
• Tiff Massey’s “Baby Bling” will be added to the Detroit Institute of Arts’ permanent collection. DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons broke the news on WDET’s The Metro on Monday. Baby Bling is one of the pieces featured in Massey’s year-long “7 Mile + Livernois” exhibit that closed at the museum in May. After the success of the exhibit, the museum says it plans to re-install its contemporary African American galleries in a more prominent location near Diego Rivera Court in October. 

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Health care advocates are pushing back against a new congressional Republican plan that would make cuts to Medicaid. In Michigan, that includes services for people enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion plan that was adopted in 2013.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says 2.6 million Michiganders are enrolled in Medicaid. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration issued a report earlier this month — before the Sunday-night rollout of the GOP budget proposal — warning of the potential impact of Medicaid cuts by the federal government.

“It’s foundational to our health care system, whether you rely on Medicaid or access healthcare through another payer,” said Monique Stanton of the Michigan League for Public Policy, a human services advocacy organization.

Stanton said one in four Michiganders get health coverage through Medicaid. She said that means hospitals and other providers rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open for people who come in with Medicaid, private coverage or no insurance at all.

Stanton said the 2014 Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion cut in half the amount of money that care providers were losing by treating people who could not afford to pay. She said that helped many rural hospitals and clinics keep operating.

“We did not necessarily have the rate of health care and hospital closures in other states – specifically states that did not have expanded Medicaid,” she said during a media call reacting to the GOP plan. “So, this could really have a specific impact in rural Michigan.”

Anthony Wright with the health care advocacy organization Families USA said the GOP plan would essentially push people off the Medicaid rolls “by putting paperwork and bureaucratic barriers in the way of people getting on and staying on health coverage.”

“This means asking many to re-enroll not just once but twice a year,” he said. “This means having more convoluted and complex requirements for determining eligibility and income that could otherwise be done easily and electronically. And this means work-reporting requirements even though the overwhelming majority of non-elderly, non-disabled adults on Medicaid are working, but simply at low-income jobs that don’t provide health coverage.”

Republicans behind the proposal have said it’s necessary to cut waste and reach the Trump administration’s budget-cutting goals, and to sustain a tax cut from President Donald Trump’s first administration. 

A recent report from the state health department says big federal spending cuts threaten Medicaid benefits for 700,000 people in Michigan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order in April asking the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to conduct a study into how Medicaid cuts would affect Michiganders.

The report found that Michigan could lose $1.1 billion dollars a year in funding. Michigan hospitals could also lose billions of dollars, resulting in  hundreds of millions less for nursing homes.

“Medicaid provides a lifeline to 2.6 million Michiganders, and the huge, proposed cuts will terminate coverage for our neighbors, family, and friends who need it most,” said Whitmer in a statement.

Republican leaders say Medicaid is off the table, but many budget experts say GOP spending targets can’t be met without touching health care. 

Other headlines for Wednesday, May 7, 2025:

• The United Auto Workers union held rallies in Trenton and Warren this week to demand Stellantis move production work to the U.S., and Michigan in particular.
• Detroit City Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero says she is certified to appear on the August primary ballot. The city elections department disqualified her over a late fee it said she failed to pay.
  Santiago-Romero contested the penalty, saying she did pay it, and that her disqualification was due to a clerical error.
• Construction crews have begun building the Detroit Grand Prix racetrack around the Renaissance Center. Race organizers say it’ll take about a week less to set up for the race this year thanks to a new wall and fence design. The races runs May 30 through June 15.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.