Ernst’s ‘we all are going to die’ quip underscores GOP’s Medicaid challenge

“Well, we all are going to die,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said in response after someone at a Friday town hall shouted that the people losing Medicaid coverage would die. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

By Patrick Svitek

As Senate Republicans return to work on President Donald Trump’s priority legislative package, they face a messaging battle on Medicaid that is fraught with potential pitfalls.

They received a reminder of the perils Friday at an Iowa town hall, when Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) flippantly responded to an audience member who shouted out that people who lose coverage under the bill would die.