Federal Cuts to SNAP

This story originally appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Written by Anna Fry, nurse home visitor at Philadelphia Nurse-Family Partnership and a clinical nurse educator at the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium.

Federal cuts to SNAP will create preventable crises that will touch every area of my patients’ lives.

The House’s "big, beautiful bill" requires states to pay for a portion of food benefit costs — changes that would oblige Pennsylvania to pay more than $1 billion to cover the cost of SNAP benefits.

As the House of Representatives voted to take away health care and food assistance from millions of people in every corner of the United States, I immediately thought of one of my patients, a single mom of twins.

One of her daughters has autism and behavioral challenges. The mother works full time, but often gets a part-time paycheck — the logistics of having to often pick up her daughter from childcare due to her behavioral challenges sometimes interferes with her scheduled work hours.

She qualifies for SNAP, but her changing work hours mean that she has to frequently update her paperwork to adjust the amount she receives.

Her challenging schedule as a working mom means that she has a difficult time finding daytime hours to go to the welfare office to turn in her paperwork.

Her daughter screams whenever she has to ride the bus because the environment is overstimulating for her, and so she arranges rides with friends and takes taxis to manage the two children.

Changes to her SNAP would present a new level of challenge for her family, already struggling with what she has to do to retain her current level of benefits.

Another of my patients at the Philadelphia Nurse-Family Partnership — an evidence-based nurse home visiting program that empowers first-time moms to successfully change their lives and the lives of their children — relied on Medicaid, which covered prenatal testing, medications, and newborn care.

When she was pregnant, she didn’t have health insurance. She was trying to get it through her job, but she was worried she wouldn’t get coverage before her son was born. That’s when she talked to me, her Philadelphia Nurse-Family Partnership nurse, and I connected her with free legal help through the Family Advocacy and Integrated Resources project. One of the project’s lawyers helped her get Medicaid. She couldn’t go to the doctor until she had her enrollment card.

When she went, she found out she was sick with a liver disorder, and her baby was not growing normally. She was immediately sent to the hospital, where she was put on medication to treat her condition, and they checked on her baby’s health. He was born early, and he needed to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, but he is healthy now.

If she didn’t have Medicaid, she doesn’t know what would have happened to her son. Without the intervention during her pregnancy, she may have lost the pregnancy and suffered health ramifications for herself, as well.

From new moms to lifelong home health aides and doctors who provide care at rural hospitals, people from all walks of life have been righteously horrified to think about what would happen if Congress kicked millions of people off their health insurance.

Everyone who is rightfully concerned about the loss of health insurance must also raise their voices to protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which keeps families healthy and strong. The historic cuts that Congress has proposed will endanger that program, too.

Between 2015 and 2019, SNAP lifted 109,000 kids in Pennsylvania out of poverty. Research illustrating the health impact of SNAP shows just how much food truly is medicine. Early access to SNAP during pregnancy and early childhood improves birth outcomes and lifelong health.

Infants and children in families participating in SNAP are more likely to see a doctor for periodic checkups. Children who receive SNAP do better in school and are more likely to graduate from high school.

For nearly 50 years, SNAP food benefits have been 100% federally funded. This national commitment has ensured that eligible families can access adequate nutrition, no matter where they live.

However, the House’s reconciliation bill would require states to pay for a portion of food benefit costs for the first time. Radical changes to SNAP would oblige Pennsylvania to pay more than $1 billion to cover the cost of SNAP food benefits.

It would also greatly expand SNAP’s harsh work requirements and compel most adults to prove they are still eligible every six months instead of once a year to keep their Medicaid. For the first time, parents of children over the age of 7 will need to prove that they are working 20 hours or more per week to keep their SNAP.

As a result, more than 400,000 parents, children, and older adults would be at risk of going hungry if they are not able to satisfy work requirements because they are taking care of sick children, or are unable to find work through no fault of their own.

And to make matters worse, many people would not be able to reach County Assistance Offices for help with their renewals. The proposed bill would cut administrative funding and add layers of new work requirement paperwork to offices already unable to recruit and retain staff due to low pay. That means those in need of help would face an underfunded and dysfunctional system rife with unanswered calls and backlogs in processing papers.

All of these issues will cause all eligible people, including seniors and people with disabilities, to lose access to food, even if they are supposed to be exempt from harsh work requirements. Cuts to SNAP will create preventable crises that touch every area of our patients’ lives.

Congress must reject cuts to this essential program, so families don’t go hungry.