GLOBE, Ariz. — Like many residents of this copper-mining town in the mountains east of Phoenix, Debbie Cox knows plenty of people on Medicaid.
Cox, who is a property manager at a real estate company in Globe, has tenants who rely on the safety-net program. And at the domestic violence shelter where she volunteers as president of the board, Cox said, staff always look to enroll women and their children if they can.
But Cox, who is 65, has mixed feelings about Medicaid. “It’s not that I don’t see the need for it. I see the need for it literally on a weekly basis,” she said. “I also see a need for revamping it significantly because it’s been taken advantage of for so long.”
It wasn’t hard to find people in Globe like Cox with complicated views about Medicaid.
Gila County, where Globe is located, is a conservative place — almost 70% of voters went for President Donald Trump in November. And concerns about government waste run deep.
Like many rural communities, it’s also a place where people have come to value government health insurance. The number of Gila County residents on Medicaid and the related Children’s Health Insurance Program has nearly doubled over the past 15 years, according to data from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Today, almost 4 in 10 residents are on one of the plans for low- and moderate-income people or those with disabilities.
So as congressional Republicans consider plans to cut more than $700 billion from Medicaid, the debate over the program hits close to home for many Globe residents, even as some welcome the prospect of tighter rules and less government spending.
For Heather Heisler, the stakes are high. Her husband has been on Medicaid for years.
“We’re ranchers, and there’s not much money in ranching,” said Heisler, who gets her own health care from the Indian Health Service. “Most people think there is, but there isn’t.”
Heisler was selling handicrafts outside the old county jail in Globe on a recent Friday night when the town hosted a downtown street fair with food trucks and live music.
She said Medicaid was especially helpful after her husband had an accident on the ranch. A forklift tipped over, and he had to have part of his left foot amputated. “If anything happens, he’s able to go to the doctor,” she said. “Go to the emergency room, get medicines.”
She shook her head when asked what would happen if he lost the coverage. “It would be very bad for him,” she said.
Among other things, proposed tax legislation written by House Republicans would require working-age Medicaid enrollees to prove they are employed or seeking work. The bill, which passed the House and has advanced to the Senate, would also mandate more paperwork from people to prove they’re eligible.
Difficult applications can dissuade many people from enrolling in Medicaid, even if they’re eligible, researchers have found. And the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates more than 10 million people will likely lose Medicaid and CHIP insurance under the House Republican plan.
That would reverse big gains made possible by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which has allowed millions of low-income, working-age adults in places like Globe to get health insurance.
Nationally, Medicaid and CHIP have expanded dramatically over the past two decades, with enrollment in the programs surging from about 56 million in 2005 to more than 78 million last year, according to federal data.
“Medicaid has always played an important role,” said Joan Alker, who runs the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. “But its role has only grown over the last couple of decades. It really stepped in to address many of the shortcomings in our health care system.”
That’s particularly true in rural areas, where the share of people with disabilities is higher, residents have lower incomes, and communities are reliant on industries with skimpier health benefits such as agriculture and retail.
In Globe, former mayor Fernando Shipley said he’s seen this firsthand.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, those are the people that aren’t working.’ Not necessarily,” said Shipley, who operates a State Farm office across the road from the rusted remains of the Old Dominion copper mine. “If you’re a single parent with two kids and you’re making $20 an hour,” he added, “you’re not making ends meet. You’ve got to pay rent; you’ve got to feed those kids.”
Not far away, at the local hospital, some low-wage workers at the registration desk and in housekeeping get health care through Medicaid, chief financial officer Harold Dupper said. “As much as you’d like to pay everyone $75,000 or $80,000 a year, the hospital couldn’t stay in business if that was the payroll,” he said, noting the financial challenges faced by rural hospitals.
The growing importance of Medicaid in places like Globe helps explain why Republican efforts to cut the program face so much resistance, even among conservatives.
“There’s been a shift in the public’s attitude, and particularly voters on the right, that sometimes government plays a role in getting people health care. And that’s OK,” said pollster Bob Ward. “And if you take away that health care, people are going to be angry.” Ward’s Washington, D.C., firm, Fabrizio Ward, works for Trump. He also polls for a coalition trying to protect Medicaid.
At the same time, many of the communities where Medicaid has become more vital in recent years remain very conservative politically.
More than two-thirds of nearly 300 U.S. counties with the biggest growth in Medicaid and CHIP since 2008 backed Trump in the last election, according to a KFF Health News analysis of voting results and enrollment data from Georgetown. Many of these counties are in deep-red states such as Kentucky, Louisiana, and Montana.
Voters in places like these are more likely to be concerned about government waste, polls show. In one recent national survey, 75% of Republicans said they think waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid is a major problem.
The actual scale of that waste is hotly debated, though many analysts believe relatively few enrollees are abusing the program.
Nevertheless, around Globe, Republican arguments that cuts will streamline Medicaid seemed to resonate.
Retiree Rick Uhl was stacking chairs and helping clean up after lunch at the senior center. “There’s a lot of waste, of money not being accounted for,” Uhl said. “I think that’s a shame.” Uhl said he’s been saddened by the political rancor, but he said he’s encouraged by the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to cut government spending.
Back at the street fair downtown, David Sander, who is also retired, said he doubted Medicaid would really be trimmed at all.
“I’ve heard that they really aren’t cutting it,” Sander said. “That’s my understanding.”
Sander and his wife, Linda, were tending a stall selling embroidery that Linda makes. They also have a neighbor on Medicaid.
“She wouldn’t be able to live without it,” Linda Sander said. “Couldn’t afford to have an apartment, make her bills and survive.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
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