As Congress tangles with a proposed federal budget that could slash billions of dollars in benefits for low-income families nationwide, Michelle Mastrototaro, of Tampa, worries about her own family, especially her 16-year-old son, Bryce, who is autistic and blind.
“Our senators in D.C. are discussing possibly cutting programs [Medicaid, food stamp benefits] that help families like mine,” she said. “The programs are not perfect, but they are a lifeline for people, and our family is trying so hard to make life work right now.”
Mastrototaro’s family, like tens of millions of families across the country, is keeping close tabs on the debate in Congress over President Donald Trump’s more than 1,000-page “big, beautiful bill" that includes steep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP) and nearly $700 billion in reduced spending in Medicaid, which provides health insurance for families with limited income.
Mastrototaro spoke Tuesday during a virtual press conference organized by the Tallahassee-based Florida Policy Institute to talk about “the devastating” impact of Trump’s proposed budget bill on Floridians.
READ MORE: Proposed federal cuts would hurt food insecure residents, Palm Beach County nonprofit warns
The event featured speakers from the Florida Health Justice Project, Florida Impact, along with SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries. The groups were among more than 70 that signed a letter to Sen. Rick Scott and Sen. Ashley Moody, urging the two Republican lawmakers to reject the proposed cuts.
Senate Republicans are proposing deeper Medicaid cuts as a way to offset the costs of making Trump’s current tax breaks more permanent under the bill.
Senate Republican leaders are pushing to fast-track the package by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline. The House barely passed its own version of the bill in late May.
A nationwide poll published Tuesday shows 83% of the public have favorable views of Medicaid.
Mastrototaro and her son, who was recently diagnosed with cancer for the second time, said losing Medicaid benefits would mean the family would have to pay more medical costs out of their own pockets. The mother and son had already lost their Tampa home during Hurricanes Helen and Milton.
Mastrototaro has stepped away from her job to care for her son, who is undergoing chemotherapy for Stage II Hodgkin lymphoma. She is concerned about being required to work to keep her Medicaid benefits under Trump’s proposed budget bill.
She also said her family relies on SNAP benefits to pay for groceries. She is among almost 3 million in Florida who would lose access to SNAP benefits through the bill.
Erica Monet Lee, a policy analyst at the progressive Florida Policy Institute, said Trump’s proposed cuts to SNAP would, for the first time, require states to pay the cost of monthly grocery benefits provided to households.
“ The bottom line is that all of these federal cuts — without the state money or will to fill in the gap — will force Florida to reduce access to SNAP and other programs,” Lee said. “In ways that inevitably hurt the people who need it the most in our state.”
Lynn Hearn, legal director at Florida Health Justice Project, said changes to the Affordable Care Act — under the proposed Trump budget — is projected to cause more Floridians to lose healthcare coverage than the changes to Medicaid.
Florida, Hearn said, is home to the country's largest number of ACA marketplace enrollees, with about 20%, or one in five enrollees nationwide.
“Our enrollment has been rising steadily since 2020,” she said.
Hearn said that changes like letting advanced premium tax credits expire this year, increases in premium costs, and changes to enrollment periods and eligibility will make the program inaccessible and unaffordable.
“ This time Congress might not be calling it an outright repeal of the ACA as it did in 2017, but a program that is inaccessible or unaffordable is as good as repealed,” Hearn said.
Mastrototaro said she wishes those in Congress could live a day in her family’s life to grasp what’s at stake for her and millions of other families across Florida and the nation if Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is signed into law.
“Step into our shoes and see how critical these benefits are for our families all across the nation,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
