How The One Big Beautiful Bill Is Hurting Wisconsin

Hospital waiting area. (Public Domain)

Everyone deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare, but right now that’s not a reality for far too many Wisconsinites – an issue made worse by the recent actions by the Trump administration.

As Congress debated massive cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare support in Washington, D.C. last year to “pay for” huge tax giveaways to mega-corporations and billionaires, there was not nearly enough attention paid to the threat that ordinary Wisconsinites would lose access to health care.

Those cuts went through in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Act – a terribly dishonest name for a bill – which included $1 trillion less for healthcare supports over the next ten years. Now, before those cuts have even been fully implemented, Wisconsin residents are already losing access to healthcare.

In February, two mental health clinics serving residents in Elm Grove and Milwaukee closed their doors for good. Owned by Optum Health, these clinics are among the dozens that Optum has closed across the country since Republican lawmakers forced through these healthcare cuts and sent them to President Trump’s desk for signature.

Optum is likely making financial decisions based on the fact that the federal government is the largest payer of mental health care in the country. I am concerned that with that $1 trillion cut looming, they see the writing on the wall and are getting out.

These two clinics abruptly closing their doors is bad enough, but a new report from Protect Our Care (a national health care advocacy organization) reveals that these facility closings are only the most recent harsh reality. Where does that leave Wisconsinites? How will they access care?

In the context of those massive giveaways to mega-corporations and big business, people are rightly furious. Here’s just one example of what that looks like. In 2024, Amazon had a federal tax obligation of around $9 billion. Because of OBBB, they owed just $1.2 billion for tax year 2025. Not because their business took a downturn—their profits actually increased by 45% –but because Republican lawmakers in Congress chose a handout for them and claimed it was paid for by slashing healthcare.

Access to care and the cost of care are the two most important components of healthcare for all of us. The trend line on each of these is going in the wrong direction. Healthcare costs are going up, and access is going down. That is a potentially deadly combination for families.

No one would argue that our healthcare system was good enough before these cuts, but choices made by Republican lawmakers in Washington, D.C. have made the problem far worse. I have heard from constituents who are facing hundreds or thousands of dollars in increased healthcare premiums, or loss of coverage altogether, and that is because Republican lawmakers chose to make Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance plans more expensive. They chose to put providers in difficult situations, and they pushed us into this moment.

Those choices will also force state lawmakers like my colleagues and I to make increasingly difficult decisions in the years to come. A new analysis from KFF projects that Wisconsin’s share of the $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts will result in a $7 billion shortfall for the state over the next five budgets. We may see less access and higher costs, but the need for healthcare will not go away.

No one should be forced to choose between paying for food, rent, childcare, and healthcare, but that’s the position Republican lawmakers have put many Wisconsinites in. That’s why I have introduced several bills to reduce healthcare costs and improve access to quality care.

I co-authored a bill to provide a BadgerCare Public Option, which would allow any Wisconsinite to purchase health coverage through BadgerCare regardless of income. I also authored the Mental Healthcare is Healthcare bill package, which includes several proposals to make mental health care more affordable and accessible by requiring health insurance coverage of mental health visits, investing in the mental health workforce, and supporting school mental health services. Republican legislators at the State Capitol chose not to give any of these bills a hearing or a vote before wrapping up the legislative session early this year. But I’m not giving up.

Choices made in D.C. and Madison affect all of us. So what are we going to do? Are we going to make our voices heard and use them to call for prioritizing healthcare over massive tax giveaways to big businesses?

I am going to use my voice and continue to fight so that everyone has access to quality, affordable healthcare. In Wisconsin, we are committed to moving forward, and I am committed to moving forward together.

We are worth fighting for.

Wisconsin State Representative Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa)