“I’ve been a nurse for over 20 plus years… Hundreds of thousands of people here in our state rely on Medicaid to take care of them,” said Shannon Davenport, “I don’t think that Senator Sullivan understands what it’s like to live on a daily basis here in Alaska, when we’re paying $10 a gallon for gas, when we’re paying $16 in the rural areas for milk… My patients come to me and they’re asking me, ‘Do I eat? Do I pay my bills? Do I pay my rent? Do I keep a roof over my kids head? Or do I have health insurance?’”

Alaskans’ premium costs are increasing by 125%, one of the steepest increases in premium spikes in the country. Two Alaska clinics have already closed, five additional hospitals are at risk of closure, and nearly 10,000 fewer Alaskans are on Medicaid following Sullivan’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) being signed into law.