KJZZ: Arizona Physicians & Medical Professionals Denounce Andy Biggs’ Dangerous Scheme To Abolish Medicaid

New reporting from KJZZ details how 50 Arizona medical professionals are sounding the alarm on Andy Biggs' scheme to abolish Medicaid — a move that would have cut healthcare for over a million Arizonans, including 100,000 with severe mental illness or disabilities.

Even Biggs' own Republican colleagues rebuked the proposal at the time, warning it would decimate rural hospitals and that eliminating AHCCCS within months simply wasn't feasible. Two years later, Biggs fought then-Republican Gov. Jan Brewer’s push to expand Medicaid. Brewer ultimately had to go around Biggs to pass Medicaid expansion and provide healthcare to 300,000 Arizonans. 

Despite warnings from his own party, Biggs voted for the largest healthcare cuts in modern history — legislation that cuts Medicaid, kicks hundreds of thousands of Arizonans off their healthcare, and raises healthcare costs for working families, sparking criticism from former Gov. Brewer, who said, "You can't kill people to balance your budget. You just can't do that." 

Those cuts have already threatened rural hospitals across the state, directly resulting in the closure of nine local health care clinics, the shuttering of one hospital in Tucson, and putting an additional eight rural hospitals at risk of permanent closure. Rather than opposing those cuts, Biggs defended them as "a good thing" and argued for "the more cut approach."

Read more about Arizona physicians and medical professionals speaking out about Biggs’ extreme agenda to abolish Medicaid:

KJZZ: Medical professionals sign letter condemning Biggs' history of supporting Medicaid cuts 

Camryn Sanchez

September 22, 2026

• A group of about 50 physicians and other medical professionals signed onto a letter to GOP Congressman Andy Biggs on Monday, condemning his efforts to eliminate the state’s Medicaid program and his history of advocating for Medicaid cuts. 

  
  

• While majority leader of the Arizona Senate in 2011, Biggs sponsored a bill which would have eliminated the state’s Medicaid agency, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. 

  
  

• Biggs opposed Medicaid expansion in 2014 when he was the president of the state senate.

  
  

• Last year, as a congressman, Biggs advocated for Medicaid cuts in the H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

  
  

• “You got some people that wanna get more cuts, I agree with the more cut approach. That's the only way you’re going to turn this thing around economically, at least for the federal spending side of it, is to reduce it. We don’t have a - by the way - we don't have a revenue problem, we bring in a lot of revenue. We have a massive spending program,” Biggs said of general cuts in H.R.1 in an interview with One America News last May.

  
  

• In a video statement, Biggs said the Freedom Caucus, which he belongs to, was responsible for increasing the amount of cuts in H.R.1.

  
  

• “With the urging and the leadership of the Freedom Caucus, we ended up with over a trillion dollars worth of reductions,” he said. 

  
  

• The physicians call Biggs’ record on Medicaid “disqualifying,” and wrote it would jeopardize all of Arizona’s hospitals and patients.

  
  

• “For us, these are not just votes on a page. We see the consequences in our hospitals, clinics, and exam rooms. A hospital in Tucson and eight local health clinics have closed, while eight rural hospitals risk permanent closure,” the letter states.

  
  

• Medicaid cuts are set to go into full effect at the end of this year.

  
  

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