BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Dressed in black in front of poster-board tombstones, a couple dozen protesters on Monday evening took a stand for Medicaid by doing the opposite.
The bunch, joined by another dozen with signs at nearby intersections, laid along the sidewalk for a “die-in” at Third and Wyandotte Park along Route 378 North.
Officials with event host group Indivisible Lehigh Valley Bethlehem said three minutes of silence showed support for an estimated 51,000 people dead from a loss of health insurance as part of H.R. 1, or the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
President Donald Trump signed the nearly 900-page bill into law on July 4.
“There is not a person that is not some way going to be impacted by those cuts."Indivisible Lehigh Valley lead organizer Brooke McDermott
Protesters said the spending plan just pads the pockets of upper-class elites.
“There is not a person that is not some way going to be impacted by those cuts,” ILVB lead organizer Brooke McDermott said.
The sidewalk in front of her was lined with tombstones, some reading: “Chose food over meds.” “Closest hospital was too far.” ”Meds or rent? I chose rent.” Children’s cancer center closed.”
'Just inhumane'
Speaking at the event, Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley said 20,000 people receive mental and intellectual disability services through the county, which includes $103 million in spending, but with inevitable cuts to come.
Pinsley even said local nursing home care will need $30 million more to afford itself.
Pinsley said event-goers have the option to ask county officials to create a “paper brigade,” perhaps of volunteers, to help those who need it in filling out the proper paperwork.
“The devastation it’s going to cause people and families: It’s just inhumane. I can’t even get my head around it.Ginny Sciorra, Indivisible Lehigh Valley Bethlehem volunteer, on the "The One Big Beautiful Bill"
Maybe the county could offer a mobile health care center if the public called for it, he said.
“This many people show up at a county meeting, change would happen,” Pinsley said.
ILVB volunteer Ginny Sciorra, of Palmer Township, said, “The devastation it’s going to cause people and families: It’s just inhumane. I can’t even get my head around it.
“It’s going to cause a lot of people a lot of pain.”
Data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates across the state more than three-quarters of a million people will lose their health insurance, including more than 26,000 in U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s 7th Congressional District.
That area includes all of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties, and part of Monroe County.
Lehigh Valley congressman's vote
Congressman Mackenzie, R-Lehigh Valley, the first-term lawmaker from Lower Macungie Township, voted in support of the bill’s 218-214 confirmation.
Lehigh Valley Congressman Ryan Mackenzie said the "One Big Beautiful Bill" will be "delivering tax relief to local families, supporting small businesses, protecting essential benefits for vulnerable populations, and providing the resources to modernize our military and secure the border once and for all.”July 3 statement
In a July 3 statement, Mackenzie said the budget puts the country’s people first by “delivering tax relief to local families, supporting small businesses, protecting essential benefits for vulnerable populations, and providing the resources to modernize our military and secure the border once and for all.”
He decried the opposition, saying the spending plan actually bolsters Medicaid and will protect other vital programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides groceries for low-income Americans.
“These organizations have burned millions of dollars in a desperate attempt to mislead the public and protect government waste," he said.
"Falsely portraying commonsense provisions like part-time work requirements and bans on government benefits for illegal immigrants as catastrophic cuts.”
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican representing the 1st Congressional District in Bucks County, supported a previous version of H.R. 1 but ultimately sided with all the chamber’s Democrats in a nay vote on the bill’s final iteration.
