Washington, D.C.– Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva has announced that he will hold a press conference in Tucson on Wednesday, May 18, to discuss the potential impacts of proposed cuts to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System(AHCCCS), the state Medicaid program. A new report from the nonpartisan group Families USA shows that 250,000 Arizona seniors and people with disabilities could be harmed if Gov. Jan Brewer’s attempted cuts are enacted.

Brewer is seeking authority to make unprecedented cuts to the program, including slashing the number of people currently served; freezing enrollment for childless adults and parents earning between 75 and 100 percent of the federal poverty level; implementing additional fees, co-pays and penalties; and instituting more frequent re-enrollment requirements.

Rep. Grijalva will be joined by Peri Jude Radecic, executive director of the Arizona Center for Disability Law, and Mark Mendibles, a Tucson Medicaid recipient who sits on the Center’s Board.

“There’s a basic question of fairness at stake here, and the people of Arizona deserve to know the facts behind this proposal,” Grijalva said. “I don’t believe working families should be told to sacrifice when big corporations keep getting million-dollar taxpayer handouts from the state legislature. Arizona will succeed when everyone pays their fair share, so instead of spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on special interest handouts, let’s protect the working people who built this state and earned some decent American benefits from their labor.”

The Families USA report is available by clicking this link or at http://familiesusa2.org/assets/pdfs/long-term-care/cutting-medicaid/Arizona.pdf.

When

Wednesday, May 18

10:00 a.m.

Where

Arizona Center for Disability Law

100 N. Stone Ave. #109