When our neighbors struggle to get health care, we all feel it

The Republican majority in Congress – including the entire Nebraska delegation – pushed through the biggest cuts to Medicaid and health care in history.¹ Brinker Harding celebrated the day this bill became law, and he supports these cuts.²

Nebraskans are first to pay the price with the new Medicaid barriers.³ Federal cuts to health care coverage affects 15,757 people in Nebraska’s 2nd District: 8,157 through Medicaid cuts and 7,600 priced out of coverage through the Affordable Care Act.⁴ When more of our neighbors are uninsured, our hospitals are stretched even thinner—jeopardizing health care throughout our community.

Nebraska families can’t afford these cuts — and Nebraska families can’t afford to elect politicians like Brinker Harding and Pete Ricketts.

Nebraska families deserve leaders who will protect the care our communities depend on. Denise Powell will build on the Affordable Care Act so families aren’t forced to spend an unreasonable share of their income on premiums and deductibles, cap insulin at $35 a month, and let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices.⁵

¹“Nebraska becomes 1st state to implement Medicaid work requirements,” ABC News, 5/1/26, https://abcnews.com/US/nebraska-1st-state-implement-medicaid-work-requirements/story?id=132529215.
²Brinker Harding (@BrinkerHarding), X, 7/4/25; Brinker Harding, Instagram, 7/4/25.
³See supra note 1.
⁴Joint Economic Committee – House Minority (September 2025), https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/eee0d67f-c44a-4b97-bb59-01d2fcd2e26e/jec-district-level-impacts-of-health-care-cuts.pdf.
⁵“Priorities,” DeniseForCongress.org, accessed 10/2/26.

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Republican-led Health Care Cuts

Nebraska’s entire federal delegation supported these health care cuts in H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which was signed into law by President Trump in the summer of 2025. This law instituted new, complicated work requirements for adults enrolled in Medicaid expansion unless they can prove they have an exemption.

Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen elected to start these requirements 8 months early on May 1, 2026 — making Nebraska first in the nation to create barriers to health care for more than 70,000 Nebraskans between the ages of 19 and 64 who have incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level (approximately $22,000/year for an individual).

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HEALTH CARE SHOULDN’T BE OUT OF REACH

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