BANGOR, Maine (WABI) – In response to the proposed healthcare cuts under the Trump administration\u2019s H.R. 1, also known as \u2018One Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u2019 nurses are traveling nationwide to rally communities and urge lawmakers to act.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, National Nurses United (NNU) made a stop at Bangor\u2019s Cascade Park as they travel the country on its \u201cRed Alert\u201d bus tour<\/a>, joined by the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really trying to draw people\u2019s attention to the rural hospitals that may well be closing over the next year or two with the defunding of Medicare through the current administration,\u201d explained Portia Judson, a nurse at MDI Hospital and member of MSNA.<\/p>\n According to NNU, four Maine hospitals are especially vulnerable to the proposed federal healthcare cuts<\/a> because of their reliance on Medicare and Medicaid funding: Northern Light AR Gould Hospital in Presque Isle, MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, St. Mary\u2019s Health System in Lewiston, and York Hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cThese hospitals serve more than a million patients a year,\u201d said NNU President Jamie Brown during Saturday\u2019s rally. \u201cWhen the H.R. 1 cuts go into effect after the upcoming midterm elections, the communities that rely on these hospitals and the patients who receive care here will be impacted as they see critical funding dry up.\u201d<\/p>\n With Maine having already lost healthcare centers and labor and delivery units in recent years, local nurses say longer wait times and longer drives will only worsen if the cuts pass.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a labor and delivery nurse, so I hear about it, these are my patients. They ask where they\u2019re from and they tell me, you know, it\u2019s from 2 hours away,\u201d recounted Erin Oberson, a registered nurse at Eastern Maine Medical Center and co-president of MSNA.<\/p>\n For Judson, closures would hit rural and island communities especially hard: \u201cAnyone with any kind of complications is kind of left out on a limb hoping maybe that LifeFlight can get there in an emergency if it\u2019s not raining, snowing, dark or cloudy.\u201d<\/p>\n Speakers from both unions urged lawmakers to take action and demanded that funds allocated in H.R. 1 for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead be redirected to Medicare for All.<\/p>\n They also voiced solidarity with nurses at Central Maine Medical Center who were allegedly suspended for trying to unionize<\/a> and with Debora Kapisha, a Maine Medical Center nurse who was detained then released by ICE in August.<\/a><\/p>\n While pressuring lawmakers to vote in their favor, organizers emphasize that mobilizing community support is just as vital.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople need to talk to each other. People need to work together and get their voices heard because after all, it\u2019s supposed to be us who are in control of our government, not the other way around,\u201d Judson said.<\/p>\n