ACT NOW: Stop Cuts to Medicaid, Education & Psychology Workforce 

Dear CPA Members, 

Please see the action alert below. This bill will likely move FAST through the final committees of jurisdiction this week so I hope that you can take a few minutes to complete this to get our individual and collective voices heard. For background, the House will vote on a federal budget bill which contains deeply problematic cuts for many programs, including psychology services and workforce programs, that will affect many vulnerable populations across the nation.  The alert contains more details, but know that the scale of these cutes, if implemented, would force states into making impossible decisions that would have ripple effects into state funded programs beyond education and health programs.  It is imperative that all psychology professionals, students and allies weigh in on this!

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 is scheduled to vote this week on a budget bill that would:

• 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 Representative today to vote against any legislation that cuts Medicaid or the ability of doctoral psychology students to finance their education.

Thank you, 
Michelle Dawson, Psy.D
[email protected]