Eau Claire Residents Rally Against Healthcare Cuts in Budget Bill

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WCFW) – Eau Claire residents protested against U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s (R – 3rd District) support for the new federal budget bill outside Mayo Clinic on Friday, Aug. 29.

The “Van Orden Can’t Hide” protest was organized by Chippewa Valley Indivisible. The organization held a pair of similar protests earlier this year before the budget bill was signed into law.

Their criticisms largely remained the same, arguing that the cuts to Medicaid could threaten even more rural hospitals. Health officials commonly cited inadequate Medicaid reimbursements as the driving factor behind the HSHS hospital closures last year.

“One of the things we talk about a lot is people who are losing healthcare, but we don’t talk about how all of the other folks are going to pay more,” said Cyndi Greening, who organized Friday’s protest with Chippewa Valley Indivisible. “Because if that isn’t covered, Mayo still needs to make money, they’re going to pass those costs on. So all the folks that do have healthcare are going to pay hugely for having healthcare and their costs are going to go up too.”

The protest also came on the heels of U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit to La Crosse on Thursday, Aug. 28, where he mainly focused on the tax cuts in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Vice President Vance argued that the legislation would make programs like Medicaid more efficient by refusing to give undocumented immigrants benefits.

Protesters in Eau Claire on Friday did not agree with that sentiment. They say removing people from Medicaid will put rural hospitals under even more financial strain and lead to more closures.

“This big ugly bill is only going to accelerate the closure of small hospitals, especially the rural hospitals,” said Dr. Rita Simon, a retired family practice physician who previously worked out of St. Joseph’s Hospital. “Because they just aren’t funded well enough on plain old Medicaid and Medicare.”

The group also criticized efforts to highlight the tax cuts in the federal budget bill. They say the tax cuts disproportionately favor the wealthy and the additional costs average citizens will face significantly outweigh what they will get back.

“So why are these cuts happening? To pay for major tax breaks going primarily to the wealthy,” said Jeremy Gragert, an organizer with Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “Our message to Derrick Van Orden and JD Vance is our health is more important than billionaire wealth.”

In a statement following the protest, Congressman Van Orden claimed the bill provides a $500,000,000 boost for rural healthcare and locked in an additional $1 billion for BadgerCare.