Jeff Birttnen is chair of the national AFSCME Retiree Council and president of AFSCME Retirees Chapter 565. So the St. Paul-area resident knows firsthand just what worries senior citizens about the so-called big, beautiful budget bill.
He relayed those concerns to members of Congress when he made a trip to Capitol Hill on Wednesday. His goal was to urge lawmakers to protect Medicaid, Medicare and other lifesaving programs.
It’s an urgent mission because the budget bill, which passed the House, is now in the Senate’s hands.
Birttnen met with House leadership to share his story and to urge lawmakers to vote against the cuts to public service in the bill. Among those he met was the staff of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota congressman.
“It’s important for them to hear me in person,” Birttnen said. “If they’ve got a face sitting in front of them, they can see that it’s personal. … But this isn’t just about me. These cuts affect everyone. This is about all the employees of the nursing homes, the physicians, the people and the patients there.”
Senior citizens have many worries about the bill, including that it would wreck Medicare. In fact, the House-passed bill will cut $500 billion out of the government’s health care program for retirees.
As a cancer survivor, the 76-year-old Birttnen credits Medicare for saving his life. Without the program, his cancer treatments would have driven him to bankruptcy. His treatments have totaled more than $88,000 this year alone. Thankfully, he has only had to pay $10 out of pocket this year because of Medicare.
But what if Medicare is cut? Then what? That’s a question that keeps many seniors up at night.
Cuts to Medicaid also worry seniors. That’s true in Minnesota and elsewhere. Nearly 1.2 million children and adults were enrolled in Minnesota Medicaid as of May 2025. Of these, two in five are children, two in seven live in a rural area, and one in seven have three or more chronic conditions.
Medicaid covers 34% of all births and — importantly for seniors — more than half of all nursing home residents.
During his career as an eligibility specialist in Washington County, Minnesota, Birttnen helped people access Medicaid and the food assistance program known as SNAP. He helped especially vulnerable groups like foster children and those in subsidized adoptions.
Today, he helps retired public service workers nationwide navigate retirement and access programs like Medicare. He is also the Retiree Council representative to AFSCME’s International Executive Board.
During his Capitol Hill visit, Birttnen highlighted the disproportionate burden that states, families and retirees like him will bear if the budget bill’s cruel cuts become law. He hammered home the fact that Medicaid cuts will hurt seniors already in nursing homes and those who want to move into those facilities.
Birttnen pointed out the human cost of weakening safety net programs like Medicaid and Medicare. He warned that Congress is playing a dangerous game of life or death with millions of Americans.
It’s cruel to make people suffer just so billionaires can have bigger tax cuts. And that’s a message Congress needs to hear from all of us.