Shutdown threat: D.C.'s health care protections at risk

The capital stands on the edge of a shutdown, its government offices preparing for darkened hallways and locked doors. However, for District residents, the real fear is not simply lost paychecks; it is the possibility of losing the fragile protections that hold their health care together.

Democrats in Congress have drawn a line. They have refused to accept a spending bill that strips Medicaid and allows Affordable Care Act subsidies to vanish. At stake are programs that tens of thousands of District residents rely on, in a city already scarred by racial health disparities and inequitable access to care.

“Senators will have to choose: to stand with [President] Donald Trump and keep the same lousy status quo and cause the Trump health care shutdown, or stand with the American people, prote