“It was us trying to send a message to let (Joyce) know how we feel,” said participant Cara Ringler, a business agent for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 668, which represents social service workers in Pennsylvania — and which organized the demonstration.

“I’m committed to the basic tenets of Medicaid,” Joyce said later, when asked about the demonstration — although his initial response was to express a commitment to sustain benefits from Medicare, Social Security and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Joyce spoke of aid for pregnant women, disabled people and children who lack health insurance — without mentioning the poor specifically — when reminded that the demonstration in front of his office was in support of Medicaid, not those other programs.

The Republican proposal calls for $880 billion in cuts over 10 years for Medicare and Medicaid — and if it all goes against Medicaid, the annual program would shrink by 11%, according to a New York Times story published Friday.

Jim Harteis of Ebensburg takes part in a protest against proposed Medicaid cuts in front of U.S. Rep. John Joyce’s office in Altoona on Friday. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

There are Republican proposals for work requirements, benefit caps and reductions of federal contributions to the states for the program.

But he’s willing to listen to anything, Joyce said.

“There are lots of moving pieces” as the budget takes shape, Joyce stated.

He needs to hold a town hall so he can have a conversation with his constituents about the potential cuts, said Martilynne Middleton, a business agent for SEIU Local 688 and resident of Summerhill — and thus, a Joyce constituent.

“Don’t mess with Medicaid,” read one of the placards the demonstrators carried. “Hands off our health care,” read another.

This is a low-income area, and Medicaid is vital, Ringler said.

“There’s a right way to cut costs and a wrong way,” said demonstrator Chip Carr of Duncansville, who is not connected to SEIU.

Carr said the Trump administration is going about it wrong, speaking of the Trump administration’s overall plans to cut federal costs.

Cutting Medicaid would be foolish, according to Dr. Zane Gates, a physician and co-founder and chairman of Gloria Gates CARE, a primary care-plus organization that serves only Medicaid patients.

He said the proposed cuts don’t make fiscal sense because they would mean that people currently kept healthy through Medicaid will get sick and the higher-level care required then to get them well would be more expensive than the money saved by the cuts.

Medicaid isn’t isolated from the rest of the health care system, but “integrated” with it, he said.

Gates said if current recipients are shut off from the program, they’ll begin to burden hospitals, forcing those hospitals to boost prices for commercial insurers.

Especially since the Medicaid expansion 11 years ago, recipients are not just poor, but also lower middle class, he said.

Most people on Medicaid nowadays are working, according to Gates — 92% are either working, going to school or caregiving, states an Associated Press article on the proposed cuts.

They’re waitresses, bartenders, coffee shop workers, employees at businesses that deal with cars, workers at discount stores — “the real face of Medicaid,” Gates said.

They’re often members of families in which two adults are working, he said, adding that they number 80 million nationwide. They tend to be people “we forget about,” Gates said.

“What are we doing, going after them?” he asked rhetorically. “Do you really think the person serving your pancakes at some small business should be punished?” he asked.

“Do we win if they lose?”

Mirror staff writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.