Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Phillip Bazzani’s recent letter defending the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (Readers Write, July 17) wasn’t just misleading—it relied on tired stereotypes and political spin to justify ripping healthcare away from the people who need it most.

Let’s be clear: undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid. That’s federal law. A few states, including Virginia, use their own funds for emergency care like childbirth, but to suggest that immigrants are “straining” Medicaid is pure scapegoating—and it’s not even new. It’s the same old playbook: distract and divide.

Then there’s the phrase “able-bodied adults without dependents,” which gets thrown around like a slur. You know who that includes? Grocery workers. Delivery drivers. People between jobs. People in recovery. People who can’t afford to go to the doctor until they’re in crisis. In other words, real Virginians—the kind we see every day in Gloucester and Mathews.

Those so-called “savings”? They come straight from kicking people off coverage and gutting payments to our hospitals. That means fewer resources, fewer staff, and longer wait times for care—especially in rural communities like ours, where we can’t afford to lose a single bed.

Calling that “responsibility” or “fairness” is like calling a house fire a budgeting strategy.

I’m a physician. I didn’t go into medicine to watch political games decide who gets to live with dignity and who gets left behind. We should be expanding care, not rationing it through paperwork and punishment.

This bill isn’t bold. It’s reckless—and we deserve better.

Dr. Tatiana Atkins, D.O.
Gloucester, Va.