WFMZ/69 News: Protesters Demand Rep. Mackenzie Protect SNAP, Medicaid

November 20, 2025

Allentown, PENNSYLVANIA —  On Monday, Lehigh Valley community members came together to call out Congressman Ryan Mackenzie for creating this current hunger and health care crisis. Attendees called on him to reverse his cuts to assistance programs, sign onto the discharge petition to extend health care tax credits for another three years, and lower costs for working families.

“I’ve lived with epilepsy since I was 11. For years, nothing kept my seizures away until, finally, the right medications did. But those prescriptions are expensive. Just one of them is nearly $1,000 a month out of pocket,” said Laura Cummings, a PA-07 constituent who relies on the ACA marketplace for care. “If Congress doesn’t extend enhanced subsidies, my premiums could triple. I might lose my insurance. Without coverage, I can’t afford my meds. If I stop them, I’ll have seizures again, risking my ability to work, drive, or live independently. That kind of fear shouldn’t exist when there’s a fix. I need Congressman Mackenzie to extend these ACA tax credits and keep health care affordable – because people’s lives depend upon it.”

Congressman Mackenzie voted for historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in the Republican Tax Law, devastating health care and threatening the very fate of federal food assistance in the Commonwealth, and has supported Trump’s tariffs that are raising costs, particularly food costs, for working families, small businesses, and American consumers. He has also failed to sign onto the ACA discharge petition that would extend marketplace health care tax credits for three more years. Nearly half a million Pennsylvanians used Pennsylvania’s marketplace to get their health insurance this year, including over 28,000 in the Lehigh Valley. Without significant action from Rep. Mackenzie to extend these tax credits, 21,000 working Pennsylvanians and their families could see an 80% increase in monthly premium costs.

ICYMI: WFMZ/69 News: Protesters demand Rep. Mackenzie protect SNAP, Medicaid

• A group of protesters gathered in the cold in downtown Allentown Monday to call on Rep. Ryan Mackenzie to protect SNAP, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

• Aidalis Martinez said losing her food stamps during the shutdown wasn't easy. "It's been stressful. I didn't think that I was going to get any SNAP benefits at all," said Martinez.

• In July, Rep. Mackenzie voted for the [Republican Tax Law] which did not include an extension to subsidies and he did the same in November, voting for a budget bill that also did not include an extension of the ACA subsidies.

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