Patti Adair’s Congressional Campaign Sparks Debate on Health Policy
In a bid to secure a seat in Congress, Republican Patti Adair is emphasizing affordability and cost-cutting. However, her support for a policy from the Trump administration, which could potentially remove 12 million Americans from Medicaid, has drawn significant attention.
Adair is challenging Democratic Representative Janelle Bynum in Oregon’s 5th District. Since 2019, she has been serving as a Deschutes County commissioner.
In June 2025, Adair’s X account featured posts from Republican Senators Markwayne Mullin and Rick Scott promoting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB). This tax legislation, already being hailed as a major achievement of President Donald Trump’s second term, aims to extend tax cuts for the wealthy by significantly reducing federal spending.
The OBBB includes a $1 trillion reduction in Medicaid funding, a program crucial for providing health insurance to low-income Americans, including 206,000 individuals in Adair’s prospective district.
In a post, Senator Scott suggested that Medicaid is plagued by fraud, proposing that removing people from the program would address the issue. This view contrasts with multiple analyses that indicate the majority of Medicaid fraud is committed by healthcare providers and contractors, not by enrollees.
The Medicaid cuts are anticipated to impact rural hospitals and healthcare providers reliant on Medicaid reimbursements. In Oregon’s 5th District, five facilities are projected to lose $55 million in revenue over the next decade, including a nearly $23 million reduction for the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.
Furthermore, the OBBB legislation allowed tax credits, which reduce the cost of Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) plans, to expire. The House Joint Economic Committee estimates that 26,500 people in Adair’s district will lose health coverage due to the combination of Medicaid cuts and the expiration of these credits.
Adair, who has previously advocated for the complete elimination of Obamacare, stated in a 2017 X post, “#repeal Obamacare. Now. Now. Now.”
Beyond healthcare, the OBBB also entails a $186 billion reduction in funding for SNAP, a program aiding over 42 million Americans in purchasing groceries.
In contrast, Bynum opposed the OBBB and, on her campaign website, emphasized the need to protect Medicaid. She stated, “No person should be a medical emergency away from bankruptcy, but sadly that happens all too often in our country. We need Congress to act—and that starts with protecting Medicare, expanding Medicaid, and lowering the cost of prescription drug prices.”
Adair has been a steadfast supporter of Trump, having served as a delegate to his 2016 presidential campaign.
The post Republican Patti Adair endorsed cutting Medicaid, repealing Obamacare appeared first on American Journal News.
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