In a Sept. 21 letter, a coalition of physicians and health care professionals criticized US Rep. Andy Biggs, the Republican nominee for governor, for his 2011 efforts to gut the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid program.
The Copper State War Room—part of Copper State Victory, the coordinated campaign to reelect Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and other statewide Democrats—helped organize the letter.
As a state senator, Biggs introduced Senate Bill 1519, which would have abolished AHCCCS by October 2011. Biggs argued it cost taxpayers too much to provide health insurance for low-income Arizonans, according to the Arizona Mirror.
About 50 health care professionals signed onto the letter arguing that should Biggs win the gubernatorial race, the health of every Arizonan would be at risk.
“As medical professionals, we believe your effort to eliminate Medicaid is disqualifying,” the letter states. “If you become governor, you would have enormous power over the very Medicaid program you once tried to eliminate.”
At the time, Biggs argued the state was inching toward a budget deficit caused by too much borrowing at the state and federal levels. His proposal would have replaced AHCCCS with coverage for the “most needy” that would be administered by the Arizona Department of Health Services, and it would have served only a fraction of the nearly 1.4 million Arizonans enrolled in Medicaid at the time.
The plan drew criticism even from fellow Republican lawmakers. Republican state Sen. Sylvia Allen said that there was no way to responsibly eliminate AHCCCS in a matter of months, and state Sen. Rich Crandall, Biggs’ fellow East Valley Republican, said it would kill rural hospitals.
“The first thing that’ll happen,” Crandall said, according to a 2016 Phoenix New Times report. “Literally, by Christmas time, there will not be a rural hospital open in the state of Arizona.”
Then-AHCCCS Director Tom Betlach said the loss of those dollars would cripple the health care system. Biggs acknowledged those concerns but stood firm in his bill.
“It will be rough. It’ll be a bitter pill to swallow,” Biggs said to then-state Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
While the legislation passed out of the Appropriations Committee, it never made it to the Senate floor.
Biggs’ healthcare record
The letter also points to a broader pattern with Biggs.
In 2017, the Republican congressman introduced legislation to gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but the legislation never advanced. He tried again in 2025, but it failed.
That same year, Biggs voted for President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which cut Medicaid and SNAP food assistance by more than $1 trillion over a decade, putting hundreds of thousands of Arizonans at risk of losing their health care.
At a Tuesday press conference, Dr. Edmond Baker, a Phoenix-area physician, said the cuts will impact how he, and other physicians, can treat patients in need of care.
“Medicaid cuts greatly affect how physicians like myself can treat a patient and can devastate rural hospitals,” Baker said. “If you take away someone’s healthcare coverage, their medical needs just don’t go away.”
Eight Arizona hospitals are at risk of closure due to the cuts, including Arizona General Hospital in Mesa and Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix. Baker said someone running for governor should fund health care, not cut it.
“Cutting Medicaid doesn’t make people stop getting sick, it just makes access to medical care harder to achieve,” Baker said. “Behind every Medicaid cut is a patient who still needs care.”
How would Medicaid cuts affect Arizona families?
Jennifer Dunn, a mother of two children with disabilities who depend on Medicaid, said at the press conference that Biggs’ efforts to gut Medicaid would hurt her family and the thousands of other children with disabilities across the state.
“My children aren’t numbers on Andy Biggs’s spreadsheet, they’re kids. They deserve a chance to grow up, learn, thrive, just like every other child in Arizona,” Dunn said. “Every child with a disability in Arizona is worth caring for, and parents like me deserve to know why Andy Biggs has spent years looking for more ways to cut the health care system our children depend on.”
Biggs did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. He will face Democratic incumbent Katie Hobbs in the November election.
