PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is discussing the impacts of potential federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, arguing it will negatively impact some of the state’s most vulnerable populations.

Republicans argued the cuts will reduce bloat, fraud and abuse of programs. However, Kotek said if is passed, hundreds of thousands of Oregonians will likely lose coverage.

“This is gonna affect every part of our state if these cuts goes through. But mostly, our rural and frontier areas are going to be devastated,” Kotek said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

This comes after U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives championed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”

“We will lose hospitals, we lose providers and most importantly, people are going to suffer because of these cuts,” Kotek said.

Kotek said food security for thousands of people in Oregon is on the line. The bill aims to dismantle SNAP’s structure, forcing Oregon to take on hundreds of millions in costs while slashing aid for children, seniors and immigrants.

The Oregon Food Bank held a press conference last month as visits spiked due to several factors, including less benefits, an increase in cost of food and wages lagging behind the cost of living, officials said.

“So if you add on reducing SNAP, reducing access to health care coverage, you’re going to continue to compound the problem,” Oregon Food Bank President Andrea Williams said on May 23.

Beyond proposed cuts to Medicaid, the bill includes a provision to defund Planned Parenthood by making the organization ineligible to be a Medicaid provider.

“They’re trying to close our doors and by doing that they’re taking away basic healthcare,” said Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette CEO Dr. Sara Kennedy.

Kennedy said across their eight centers in Oregon — but especially in rural areas — Planned Parenthood is often the only provider, most with most of their patients relying on Medicaid.

“Seventy percent of those visits are paid for via Medicaid. So this ultimately means that those patients, tens of thousands of patients, would not have access to basic reproductive health care, including cancer screening, contraception, well person visits, STI screening and treatment, and pregnancy care, including abortion,” Kennedy said.

An analysis by the State Health and Value Strategies Program at Princeton University estimates that if the bill passes, roughly 1 in 10 Medicaid enrollees would lose coverage. That’s about 9 million fewer people enrolled nationally. However, analysts estimate states like Oregon would feel the impact most, seeing reductions of 15% or more.

The Princeton analysis says that’s largely because Oregon has expanded Medicaid more than most states. Dr. Kennedy said that expansion and protections for reproductive healthcare could be dismantled by the Big Beautiful Bill.

“This bill is going to basically make pregnancy more dangerous, it will cause STD rates to skyrocket. It will cause basic health care services that prevent expensive, painful, long-term disease or death — It will cancel all of that. And so, our population is at risk here in Oregon,” Kennedy said.

The legislation has yet to make it through the U.S. Senate.