Turn up the Heat!!! Act Now to Keep Pressure Against Broad-Reaching Budget Cuts

We need all psychology professionals, students and allies to continue to speak up on proposed deep budget cuts to programs that support vulnerable populations (women, children, veterans, people with disabilities and more), as well as the psychology workforce.

The House of Representatives passed legislation that would do the items listed below, and it is now going to the Senate for consideration:

Cut $715 billion in federal spending from Medicaid, and remove health insurance for millions of Americans and blowing a hole in state budgets and threatening critical hospitals and health systems. It would also ban Medicaid coverage of all reproductive health services (e.g. birth control, STI testing, etc.) provided by Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, even though Medicaid spending on abortion has long been banned.
Cut more than $300 billion in federal student aid and graduate assistance spending, severely threatening efforts to address nationwide shortages in the behavioral health workforce.
Cut $300 billion in federal spending for food aid to families under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, threatening the well-being of the 42 million low-income Americans who rely on the program each month.

These cuts will have far-reaching ripple effects at the state and federal level that will go beyond the healthcare and education sectors. If implemented, the scale of proposed federal budget cuts would force states into making impossible decisions.

No psychologist can afford to sit this conversation out. Ask your Senator today to vote against any legislation that cuts Medicaid or the ability of doctoral psychology students to finance their education.

Additional Resources to Help You Personalize Your Message:

Personalizing your message  - by either editing the subject line, or adding to or editing the text to add your own thoughts - will make it more memorable for Congressional staff and therefore greatly increase its impact. To help with that, you can find information relevant to your location and the field of psychology by…

Visiting the Kaiser Family Foundation map, which shows Medicaid enrollment in U.S. states and congressional districts.
Consulting state-by-state estimates of the impacts of Medicaid per-capita spending caps. 
Reading this article on the likely effect of Medicaid cuts on access to behavioral health treatment.

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