The Wide-Ranging and Brutal Effects of the So-Called Big Beautiful Bill
We continue to see and feel the inhuman and intended impacts of H.R.1, passed by Congress last year, with votes in favor from all of Nebraska’s Congressional delegation. The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has a brutal impact on local families and communities, and its scope is breathtaking – from regressive tax changes to reduced stability of rural hospitals. Its hundreds of provisions take food and health care away from working Nebraskans and families – while shifting tax responsibility away from corporations and the ultra-wealthy and pouring billions of our taxpayer dollars into federal ICE agents and mass detention facilities. Down the road for our future, the law will also further balloon the deficit.
The devastating consequences of H.R.1 began immediately after its passage, with the loss of food support for long-time community members. Then, Governor Pillen decided to make things worse by implementing new Medicaid work reporting requirements early already causing over 1,000 Nebraskans to go without Medicaid, and by creating new paperwork demands which are causing delays for Nebraskans to get food, resulting in almost 27% or 40,000 SNAP participants to lose benefits, most of whom are children. In the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services’ own words, H.R.1 will cause a “heightened financial strain on families,” including adding an additional $2,200 in annual grocery costs and “forcing low-income parents to choose between paying essential utility bills or purchasing nutritionally dense food.”1
And now, on October 1, many long-time community members – refugees, those granted asylum, victims of human trafficking, and others – will lose health care coverage. We are talking about our friends and neighbors who have worked hard and been a part of our communities for years now facing a future with their health in jeopardy.
We have heard how H.R.1’s damaging changes have impacted Nebraskans directly from community members themselves:
- One individual found out he lost his Medicaid coverage after the hospital called him to cancel his appointments in the midst of cancer treatment. His managed care organization told him it was because of the work requirements.
- One former foster youth faced a new work requirement in SNAP, and was instructed to work or lose food support, while she was caring for her 5-month premature newborn who was on oxygen 24-hours a day. Although she was supposed to remain eligible because she had a new baby, paperwork hangups and department delays caused her to lose benefits for herself and her family for several months.
- Nebraskans with potentially deadly conditions are scrambling to find coverage for care, including a Nebraskan who needs kidney dialysis multiple times a week.
These outcomes are not an accident. They are what H.R.1 was designed to do: Cut support for everyday people to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest, while expanding mass surveillance and detention. Congress can make different choices.
In the coming weeks, we will focus more in depth on the different ways H.R.1 is making life worse for Nebraskans, including historic losses in food support and the shaky Medicaid work requirement roll out that has already quietly prevented almost 1,200 Nebraskans from having health care coverage. Also deep instability in local communities with increased ICE agent presence and continuing detentions and deportations of longtime working neighbors. Stay tuned as we share stories and outline what you can do to push back.
- State of Nebraska Agency: 025 – Dept of health & Human Services 2027-2029 Biennial Budget Request ↩︎