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Freshman Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., May 6 joined former CNN correspondent Frank Sesno at the 2025 AHA Annual Membership Meeting to discuss their first terms in the U.S. Senate, what they hope to see in American health care, and what hospitals, health systems and hospital associations can do to help protect Medicaid.

“I think what they’re trying to do to Medicaid is an existential threat to the health care system,” Gallego said. “If they want to find some savings in health care overall there are ways we could do that — but with the way they’re going about it they’re going to end up closing hospitals ... And once hospitals shut down, they’re not going to open back up.”

Gallego commented on how severe cuts to Medicaid would affect rural hospitals in particular. “If some of these hospitals shut down, [patients] are going to drive a long way. And those hospitals are the drivers of the economy in that area; culturally they’re very significant. I think it would be hard for residents to see the hospital that has been a part of their life just shut down.”

Both senators spoke about how Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again initiative has encouraged bipartisanship in the Senate.

“I find it’s opening up interesting conversations on things we’ve been trying to push on forever,” Slotkin said. “[Republicans] have a permission slip to talk about what’s actually harming Americans.”

Slotkin acknowledged the difficult political position hospital associations find themselves in. “I understand that hospitals and hospital associations don’t want to pick a fight with this administration,” she said. “And you don’t have to start a fight, but be clear about the threats to your industry and the community you are serving."

“It has to be personalized,” Gallego said. “If you allow this just to be a data issue, you’re going to lose. If you make this an emotionally grounded argument, this is the time that you actually win.”