This opinion piece was originally published by the Yakima Herald-Republic on March 15, 2025
Stretching from the Oregon line to the Canadian border, Washington’s 4th Congressional District is the geographic heart of the Evergreen State.
It’s not the richest district in the country, nor is it the most populated. But it cuts a wide swath, especially when you’re talking agriculture and natural resources. We grow more hops and apples than anybody, and we take pride in how hard we work to do it.
Despite how much we value our self-sufficiency, though, our region — more so than most in America — depends heavily on federal funding, particularly for medical care.
Federal dollars, in the form of programs like Medicaid and Medicare, flow through state programs like Washington’s Apple Health insurance to help pay for health care for seniors, low-income families and people with disabilities.
The need is acute in Yakima County, where more than half the population is enrolled in Apple Health. It’s also critical for regional hospitals and long-term care centers, which derive the lion’s share of their gross revenues from government funding.
And yet the White House and Congress seem hell-bent on drastically cutting that funding. Why? Among other things, it will help make up for the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts they want — cuts that would largely favor the rich.
The Republican-led House of Representatives wants $880 billion sheared off the budget, but GOP politicians insist they won’t touch Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security. That, however, is mathematically impossible without cuts to some or all of those programs, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s calculations.
The most vulnerable target: Medicaid. And the local effects would be catastrophic.
Earlier this month, the YH-R’s Jasper Kenzo Sundeen outlined the local stakes in a comprehensive report. And regional health care organizations and providers are urgently warning of unthinkable scenarios: hospitals and nursing homes going out of business, disabled patients being wheeled out into the streets, children being denied care for throbbing toothaches.
Fewer providers would mean less access and longer waits for everybody, too. Not just Medicaid and beneficiaries.
In crafting their budget resolution, House leaders didn’t detail what programs should be cut — the vote was simply to trim $880 billion. Perhaps that gave them a way to keep a straight face in saying they weren’t cutting anybody’s benefits.
At any rate, 4th District Rep. Dan Newhouse voted for the cuts, and now Central WA Families, a coalition of local medical professionals, is leaning in hard on the Sunnyside Republican. The group is circulating a petition asking him to fight for Medicaid funding as the budget process continues.
He might, but even if he does, it might not help. So far, this Congress has meekly gone along with everything the new president has asked.
If they go along in this case, our region will face “dangerous consequences,” Norma Bojorquez of Catholic Charities said during a discussion between Central WA Families representatives and the YH-R Editorial Board this week.
We certainly share Bojorquez’s and the coalition’s concern.
We also hope Newhouse and the rest of the leaders — and citizens — of our region are paying attention to the alarms that Central WA Families and others are sounding.
Let’s be clear: These cuts would devastate our region. They’d break our already fragile health care system, and the ripples would be felt in every sector of our economy.
The people who can afford to buy Teslas by the dozen don’t need more tax breaks. The people who live in the 4th Congressional District simply want the security of available health care.
