Congress is considering proposals that would jeopardize healthcare coverage for millions of poor and near-poor adults and children. 

Legislation under consideration in the House and Senate would gut Medicaid, which is a joint federal-state program and the single largest source of health insurance in the United States.

Together with the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid provides health insurance to more than 72 million Americans.

Without healthcare coverage through Medicaid, low-in-come families will be forced to make impossible “choices” among seeing a doctor, filling a prescription, buying food, and paying their rent.

The result of lower Medicaid coverage rates would be millions of additional people at greater risk of hunger and food insecurity (defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as worrying that there will not be enough money to buy food).