On Thursday, advocates organized by Food & Water Watch protested in Davenport against U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s vote last summer to support federal cuts to Medicaid funding, which they say will endanger hospitals and healthcare access while Iowans struggle with industrial agriculture-linked water and cancer crises.
They held signs outside the MercyOne Genesis Davenport Medical Center, which is scheduled to take on patients after MercyOne closes the Clinton Labor & Delivery unit at the end of this month. The rally was not associated with or endorsed by MercyOne.
Mac Beamer is Scott County organizer for Food & Water Watch, a national environmental group that works for safe food, clean water, and a livable climate. She’s personally battled breast cancer and ovarian cancer and said Iowa cancer rates are among the highest in the nation, while water quality is among the worst.
“Iowa is in a water crisis. Because of that water crisis, we're also experiencing cancer and healthcare crisis,” she said. "And so as our water quality worsens, we're also seeing rural hospitals shut down.
"And we know that these issues just compound on each other," Beamer said.
She noted Miller-Meeks has joined Republicans in making changes to environmental protection, and has supported bills that lead to worse outcomes for Iowans’ water and health.
“If we don't have safe drinking water and we also don't have safe, reliable access to healthcare in hospitals, we're just gonna get sicker,” she said. “We're just going to see the cancer crisis in Iowa get worse. So that's kind of what we're here today doing, pointing out how Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s votes for things like the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ or votes like that can and do have an effect on our lives and our health outcomes.”
“She’s definitely been voting to gut what hasn't already been gutted,” Beamer said of stripping environmental protections nationwide. “She did also vote on another bill in December that further gutted the Clean Water Act. And so we're seeing not only does she vote initially on bills that cause harm, but she doubles down and votes on more bills that lead to worse outcomes for our water and health.”
“We have some of the worst water in the nation and we're actively fighting fights to even just monitor its quality,” she added. “We are in a losing battle of trying to get lawmakers to fund water-quality systems that just let us know whether we should be concerned about our water. We know that there are things like nitrates in our water and those nitrates are linked to cancer causing.”
Iowa has the second highest rate of new cancer cases of any state in the U.S., behind just Kentucky.
In December, Miller-Meeks voted for the PERMIT Act -- which limits the scope of the Clean Water Act by redefining navigable waters to exclude waste treatment systems, ephemeral features that flow only in direct response to precipitation, prior converted cropland, groundwater, or any other features determined to be excluded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act, was sponsored by Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Collins (R-GA), with Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) as original cosponsor, to streamline the permitting process under the Clean Water Act.
“The PERMIT Act is a package of commonsense reforms to Clean Water Act permitting processes that will help lower construction costs and utility bills, speed up infrastructure project timelines, and provide greater regulatory certainty,” Graves said in December. “The reforms in the PERMIT Act will have immediate impact on energy producers, the agriculture industry, home and road builders, water utilities, and everyday Americans who have to navigate complex and confusing permitting processes.”
Beamer, who is 24, has a personal interest in the issues, since she’s already been treated for breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
“I was dealing with hereditary cancers that are not necessarily related to the water quality issue, knowing that if I spend the rest of my life in Iowa, there's a pretty solid chance that I'm going to get yet another cancer simply from drinking and bathing in the water that comes out of my tap,” she said Thursday, noting she got screened early, since she’s the eighth generation of women in her family to have cancer.
“I knew to look for it early and I experienced a fight on that,” Beamer said. “I had to fight the healthcare system to even get checked for cancer. I had to fight to be treated of cancer. I've lost parts of my body to cancer. So I know for certain, we need to care about this so other people don't have to double how hard I had to fight just for the same kind of treatment.”
Miller-Meeks needs to be held accountable for votes that clearly affect people’s lives, she noted.
“No benefits come from not checking if our water's dirty. No benefits come from making sick people unable to go seek out help,” Beamer said. “People are here saying, we don't want this. We want your votes to be pro healthcare, pro clean water. And she's not voting in our interest. And so that's why we're out today being concerned Quad Citizens, concerned Iowans who are going, no, your job is to vote in our interest, and we're showing you what our interests are.”
Miller-Meeks’s office provided this statement Friday morning:
“As a physician and former nurse, I’ve spent my life caring for patients and working to strengthen care for families,” she said. “In Congress, I’m focused on protecting Medicaid for the Americans it was created to serve while rooting out the waste, fraud, and abuse that threaten the program’s future. I’m also focused on addressing rising cancer rates and led legislation, now signed into law, that expands access to lifesaving early detection screenings for millions of Americans.”
The protest was held at MercyOne Genesis, because it’s one of the hospitals directly impacted by the Clinton closure, announced in late March.
“The patients who are going to be impacted by Clinton's closure, which if we look at it in a very long stance, is indirectly part of Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s choice to vote against healthcare and clean water,” Beamer said. “Those patients are going to be sent here. That's like an hour trip.”
“I'm like, so if we're closing down labor and delivery, when is the cancer center next?” she added. “When is the ICU next? Like, what is the hierarchy of units that close?”
Protestors were upset that many low-income expectant mothers (who depend on Medicaid) will have to spend much more on gas to travel to the Quad Cities for pre-natal and delivery care, after the Clinton unit closes.
MercyOne said in a press release on March 27, 2026:
“Health care providers nationwide are facing significant challenges, including increasing costs, staffing shortages and reimbursement that does not cover the full cost of care. These pressures are combined with recent and expected government funding and policy changes across Medicaid and Medicare, reducing reimbursement to hospital systems. It is not possible to absorb these impacts without making thoughtful, forward-looking adjustments to remain sustainable.”
After thorough analysis, MercyOne Clinton Medical Center will transition labor and delivery services to other MercyOne birth centers in Dubuque, Davenport and Silvis. May 26 is the final day scheduled deliveries will be performed in Clinton.
Eighty percent of MercyOne services are for Medicaid, Medicare and charity care patients, the hospital website says. Recent and future government funding and policy changes, including Medicaid cuts, are projected to drive a $1.5-billion annual reduction in reimbursement for Trinity Health, parent company of MercyOne.
Karen Habenicht of Bettendorf (a retired social worker) was one of the Thursday protestors, wearing an inflatable duck costume in support of babies, and said: “We can't do all that, cuts for billionaires, tax breaks, and then have the people that don't have good health or they're handicapped and just let them die because they will. It's almost like Darwinism or something.”
“They’re closing rural hospitals because of Medicaid cuts,” said Jane I. Duax of Davenport. “The birthing center in Clinton, you’re gonna have to drive down here or Dubuque to have a baby? I wonder how many gynecologists will be in Clinton anymore.”
Details behind Medicaid changes
The Kaiser Family Foundation said the bill (signed into law last July) would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over 10 years. The biggest sources of Medicaid savings in the reconciliation package sum to $851 billion in savings, which is 86% of the gross savings (before accounting for interactions) and include:
- Mandating that adults who are eligible for Medicaid through the ACA expansion meet work and reporting requirements ($326 billion),
- Establishing a moratorium on new or increased provider taxes and reducing existing provider taxes in expansion states ($191 billion),
- Revising the payment limit for state directed payments ($149 billion),
- Increasing the frequency of eligibility redeterminations for the ACA expansion group ($63 billion).
Over three-quarters (76%) of the 10-year reductions in federal Medicaid spending in the reconciliation package would occur in the final five years of the period. While policy effects do typically compound overtime, many of the health care spending reductions are also backloaded and occur from 2030 through 2034.
Miller-Meeks’s office said the federal Medicaid spending reductions over 10 years (2025–2034) are best summarized as a multi-pronged overhaul designed to enforce fiscal discipline and curb program expansion. The reductions are driven primarily by three structural shifts:
- Mandatory Work Requirements: Projected to save roughly $100 billion to $130 billion by requiring non-disabled adults to document 80 hours of work or community service monthly.
- Financing Reforms: Changes to "State Directed Payments" (SDPs) and provider taxes—tools states previously used to maximize federal matching funds—account for nearly $150 billion in savings.
- Eligibility & Enrollment Tightening: The remainder of the savings comes from more frequent eligibility checks (redeterminations every six months instead of annually) and ending coverage for certain lawfully present immigrants and all illegal immigrants.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation (an independent health policy group), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the Medicaid work requirement provisions in the law will be the largest source of Medicaid savings, reducing federal spending by $326 billion over 10 years and cause millions to become uninsured.
Implementing work requirements on a national scale, requiring states to verify individuals’ monthly work status (at least every 6 months) and implement a long list of exemptions are policies that proved challenging for Arkansas and Georgia to operationalize and led to 18,000 people losing coverage in Arkansas.
KFF analysis shows most Medicaid adults under age 65 are working already (without a requirement) or face barriers to work. Many Medicaid adults who are working low-wage jobs are employed by small firms and in industries that have low employer-sponsored insurance offer rates.
In previous analysis, CBO found that a Medicaid work requirement would not have any meaningful impact on the number of Medicaid enrollees working, and cited research from Arkansas indicating that “many participants were unaware of the work requirement or found it too onerous to demonstrate compliance,” resulting in coverage loss.
At an April 22, 2026 Senate committee hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. argued with Democrats who said that the Republican legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law last summer made cuts to Medicaid and would reduce access to healthcare for millions of people.
Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, while talking about mental health services covered by Medicaid, said that the Trump administration and congressional Republicans had “pushed through the biggest cuts to Medicaid in the history of that program.”
In response, Kennedy said that wasn’t the case. “First of all, there are no cuts in Medicaid,” he said. “I keep saying this. Here’s what the CBO said: In fiscal year 2025, $668 billion. Fiscal year 2036, $981 billion. That’s not a cut. It’s a 47% increase.”
Smith interjected, by saying: “Secretary Kennedy, a trillion dollars in cuts, according to the CBO. Seven million people losing their health insurance because of the Trump administration actions. That’s not debatable.”
Miller-Meeks’s office also pointed out Friday that through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Rural Health Transformation Program, Iowa was awarded a total of $209 million in 2026 for the first year of the federal program and is the first state in the nation to award funding for its project initiatives.
“These investments represent a major step forward in ensuring that rural Iowans have access to high-quality health care services and providers,” Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a January release. “Through Iowa’s Rural Health Transformation Program, Healthy Hometowns, we are building stronger, healthier communities across the state.”
The first grants awarded specifically support the Hometown Connections initiative, part of the state’s Healthy Hometowns Project, which focuses on building partnerships to restructure health care delivery options for rural communities.
The grants will fund medical equipment procurement and installation, and support health care workforce recruitment.
Miller-Meeks is facing both Democratic and GOP opposition in the June 2 Iowa primary for the 1st Congressional District. David Pautsch, a Davenport Republican, a businessman and founder of the Quad Cities Prayer Breakfast, is seeking the nomination for the November general election. And Democrat Christina Bohannan, a former state lawmaker and University of Iowa law professor, is trying a third time to unseat Miller-Meeks. She first faces a primary challenge from UI Health Care worker Travis Terrell for their party's nomination.
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