What We Believe:

• Now more than ever, it’s critical to fight for health care, nutrition assistance, housing, child care, and other essential services that help millions of low-income families and individuals meet their basic needs and thrive.
• Everyone in America deserves stability and security. As the cost of living rises, people are falling on hard times — whether due to job loss, illness, or struggling to keep up with everyday expenses.
• Substantial cuts to basic services designed to support us during tough times threatens the well-being of our nation’s communities.
• A more efficient government does not have to be one that abandons the services that support citizens when they most need it.
• The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” guts basic needs programs through the largest cuts to both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history.
• Slashing billions from Medicaid and food assistance will raise costs and cause millions of low-income people, children, seniors, and people with disabilities to suffer.
• We should be strengthening support for basic needs programs — not taking it away.
• As OBBBA is implemented across the country, we should focus on helping families who need support to afford health care, food and other basic needs.
• Instead of gutting services to fund tax cuts for the wealthy, we should invest in making essential services work better for children, families, seniors, and other people.

Why We’re Defending Medicaid: 

• Medicaid is an essential lifeline to millions of Americans and supports the core basic needs of low-income people across the country.
• Roughly 15 million people by 2034 will lose health coverage and become uninsured because of the Medicaid cuts, OBBBA’s failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace coverage, and other harmful ACA marketplace changes, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
• These cuts will take health care away from disabled children, seniors and veterans.
• Gutting Medicaid doesn’t just hurt people who need support — it threatens the health care backbone of our communities. When hospitals close and providers leave, even people with private insurance will struggle to get care.
• The newly enacted paperwork requirements will lead to more people getting kicked off their healthcare for no good reason.
• This will punish people who lose their job by taking away their health care too.
• Individuals in poor health or with chronic illnesses will be the most likely to be hurt by losing their jobs AND their health care.

Why We’re Defending SNAP: 

• Many families already feel the pressure of rising costs of basics like milk and eggs, and SNAP is a crucial support for millions.
• SNAP doesn’t just help families in need — it supports local grocers, farmers, and small businesses. Investments in food and nutrition strengthen our local economy and help build stronger communities across America.
• Cutting the services that help families afford the basics like food and groceries will have ripple effects throughout communities. .
• OBBBA slashes SNAP funding by nearly 30 percent.
• Families will lose SNAP benefits under Republicans’ law, taking food off the table for families already struggling to afford groceries.
• OBBBA also adds new red tape for vulnerable groups — including veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and youth aging out of foster care.
• The extreme and unprecedented cost shift to states included in OBBBA could effectively end SNAP in some places, if states determine they can’t meet the new funding requirements and are forced out of the program.

Why We’re Against Work Requirements:

• Proposed paperwork requirements will lead to fewer people working and more people getting kicked off their healthcare for no good reason.
• This would punish people who lose their job by taking away their health care too.  
• Individuals in poor health or with chronic illnesses will be the most likely to be hurt by losing their jobs AND their health care.

About the Partnership for Basic Needs

The Partnership for Basic Needs is a coordinated network of stakeholders ready to link arms to center people with low incomes in this historic fight to block cuts to programs that support families struggling to meet their basic needs. A wide variety of health, disability, nutrition, housing, and economic leaders sit at the campaign table, including the Center for American Progress, Center for Law and Social Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Coalition on Human Needs, Community Change, and the National Women’s Law Center.