New York Health Care Advocates Rally Against Medicaid Cuts: ‘You Will Bury Children’

More than 60 parents, assemblymembers and youth mental health advocates called upon New York State lawmakers to compensate for the impending deficits from President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

This story was produced by student reporters in City Limits’ youth journalism training program (CLARIFY): Jayleen Ajcalon, Damali Brown, Jael Garcia, Stefani Hermanto, Takrim Kahn, Alexandra Krasney, Terence Li, Jason Ocasio, Anjhelina Rimarachin, Awa Sangere, Amiratu Sore, Frederic Vuillemey, Al-Maliki Thompson and Ella Zhu. With instruction and editing by Jeff Gage and Alana Allen.

Youth advocates held a rally last week to protect mental health care access for children in New York in the wake of federal Medicaid cuts, gathering at The New York Foundling in East Harlem to denounce the changes.

Amid chants of “Stand up, fight back!” and “Tax the rich, fund the youth,” a group of more than 60 parents, assemblymembers and youth mental health advocates—members of the Campaign for Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids*—called upon New York State lawmakers to compensate for the impending deficits from President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

The bill, which was signed into law on July 2, enacts the largest Medicaid funding cuts in U.S. history, slashing around $1 trillion from the program. Congressional budget estimates predict that over 10 million Americans will lose Medicaid coverage within the next 10 years.

In New York alone, these cuts are projected to cost the state health care system $13 billion annually and leave more than 1.5 million people uninsured, according to the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The New York Foundling’s Senior Vice President, Dr. Kristy-Lee Jean-Pierre, warned that these cuts will reduce access to mental health services and preventive care for millions of children in New York. This means fewer resources to serve youth, families in crisis and children with developmental needs.

“Fifty percent of our kids are dependent on Medicaid to be able to access that care. So any cuts are going to result in real effects, real tragedy and real incidents,” Jean-Pierre said.

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” makes it harder to get coverage due to narrower eligibility criteria, like work requirements for parents with children older than 13. Those under the Affordable Care Act, which expanded Medicaid, will be required to update their information yearly, including immigration status and income.

The White House claims the changes are intended to root out “waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Jo Anne Simon is a state assemblymember representing Brooklyn’s 52nd district. She spoke passionately about the urgent need for mental health support and the state’s responsibility to act in the wake of the federal cuts. 

“They’re hurting people and they don’t care about the people here that we care about, that we need to take care of, and that is all children,” Simon said. “All children need access to mental health[care].”

With federal support slashed and state agencies facing critical demand, Simon called directly on Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to find long-term solutions. She underscored the importance of raising state funding in a fair and sustainable way, and “not on the backs of the working people of New York.”

“The administration [in New York] has to start raising funds. We can’t continue like this, and we can’t make up the difference in the federal funding,” Simon said.

Fellow Assemblymember Manny De Los Santos, a former high school social worker who represents the 72nd District in Manhattan, highlighted the struggles that many New York City families already faced before these cuts, including children struggling with food insecurity.

“It’s about respect. It’s about the services that need to be offered to those youth,” De Los Santos said. “So I say to you today: Mental health services…are not to sell.”

The new Medicaid cuts demonstrate how the federal government has been “working against” local communities, De Los Santos said, particularly underserved ones and communities of color like those he and Simon represent.

“Mental health services and critical services are not special services,” De Los Santos said. “They’re human rights services.” 

Other speakers provided emotional personal testimonies of how their lives and the lives of their children were impacted by mental health struggles, and how having access to Medicaid was the difference between saving a child and losing them.

Christina Hauptman, a member of the Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids Council, recounted how the Medicaid waiver program saved her son from suicide when private insurance would not cover the services he needed. She warned that cuts to Medicaid would put the lives of children with severe mental health needs at risk.

“Suicide is real—it’s not rare. And it’s stealing our children,” Hauptman said. “Now they want to gut [Medicaid]. They call it a budget cut. I call it a body count.”

Tamara Begel’s son dealt with emotional regulation issues severe enough that, between the ages of 12 and 17, he was separated from his family in out-of-home placements including community residences, hospitals, and a residential treatment centers. Though he has now returned home, Begel lamented having missed “his bar mitzvah, dinners filled with laughter and debate” and other milestones of her son’s adolescence.

“[A] lack of funding, delays in service, [and] workforce shortages are not just inconvenient. They are harmful,” said Begel, who said she stills suffers from the trauma of her son’s years of struggle. 

However, according to mental health advocates like Anya Garcia, an increase in funding must be accompanied by other reforms.

Garcia struggled with her mental wellbeing as a teen, but had to wait months to receive care and switched between three different therapists in one year. Such crises will only get worse with federal cuts, she cautioned.

“That means longer wait lists, fewer providers, and fewer lifelines for young people in pain,” Garcia said.

Garcia also stressed the need for more diversity in mental health professions to reflect the experiences of people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, and young people impacted by violence. She argued that such representation is vital to building trust. 

“My generation carries the weight of systemic racism, poverty, violence and loss,” Garcia said. “Our behavioral health reflects that. That’s why we need policies and funding that truly reflect our reality and our needs. We need a system designed with us in mind, not one that treats us as an afterthought.”

Assemblymember Nily Rozic of the 25th District in Queens acknowledged that there have been some positive strides at the state level in recent years. She touted legislation like the SAFE for Kids Act, which was passed in 2023 and banned addictive social media feeds for minors, but warned that such legislation needs institutional support to succeed.

“None of that matters if we’re not also funding behavioral health systems like the ones here today,” Rozic said, in reference to The New York Foundling, a child welfare nonprofit that provides youth mental health services.

“Laws alone won’t heal kids,” she added, “but funding these services will.”

As Jean-Pierre noted, places like The Foundling provide outreach that extends well beyond mental health services themselves. They can be community-wide resources.

“Funding allows us to continue to open up doors to have community events, to help provide resource fairs, to allow folks to gain information and connection to the things that they need to support truly having the lives that they know that they deserve,” Jean-Pierre said.

The stakes for protecting New Yorkers’ access to Medicaid mental health services, however, run deeper than the sustainability of any one hospital or provider. Hauptman emphasized that fact in no uncertain terms.

“You take Medicaid away, you will bury children,” Hauptman said. “They will end up in ERs, in psych wards and in graves. This isn’t policy. This is life or death.”

If you or someone you know are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK  to 741741.

*Editor’s note: One of City Limits’ funders, the Citizens Committee for Children, is part of the Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids coalition.

To reach the editor, contact [email protected]