Protecting Benefits in the Face of H.R. 1: Why Education and Storytelling Matter

Agencies helping older adults and people with disabilities need to share how state and federal budget cuts will affect their clients’ lives, humanizing those who rely on impacted programs.

Educating policymakers, community leaders, and the public, while sharing real stories that show how these programs help people live healthier, more stable lives, are key strategies for protecting benefits for older adults and people with disabilities. While federal and state budget cuts are severely affecting these programs, advocates emphasized that informed resistance and sustained advocacy can mitigate the damage and, in some cases, even lead to rollbacks.

That was the message delivered to the audience at the California Association of Area Agencies on Aging (C4A) Conference in November 2025.

Yasmin Peled, Director of California Government Affairs for Justice in Aging, delivered a sobering keynote presentation on the impacts of budget cuts on social programs stemming from H.R. 1, commonly known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

H.R. 1 will bring more frequent eligibility checks and new requirements for social programs.

“Honest paperwork mistakes could cost someone their benefits,” Peled explained. But, she added, there will be opportunities in the future to repeal parts of the law and mitigate the harmful effects of new policy implementation.

“When it comes to Medicaid, $990 million is being cut, the largest cut in the program’s history,” Peled said. “About 10 million people potentially could lose their coverage.”

“So where do we start? We can’t fight back against what we don’t understand.”

It is key to educate policymakers, community leaders, and the public. Advocates for older adults and people with disabilities were able to share stories and push back against previous proposals that were even more draconian.

“Our current predicament doesn’t have to define our future,” she pointed out. “And the older adults we serve deserve all of us doing our parts to make things better.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as CalFresh in California, is being cut by $1.87 billion, with four million people nationally expected to lose coverage.

There are more than 2.5 million older adults and people with disabilities who rely on Medi-Cal. Another five million adults under 65 are covered under the Medicaid Expansion, a part of the Affordable Care Act that allows states to extend coverage to low-income adults.

Peled explained that most older adults live on limited resources.

The numbers are sobering. Nationally, 8.2 million older adults live in poverty, with 1.3 million of them in California. The poverty rate among older adults in California is 21 percent—the highest of any age group.

State government leaders have made it clear they cannot maintain the same level of Medi-Cal benefits with significantly less money, according to Peled.

“There’s only so many places to go looking for cuts. If the Great Recession tells us anything, it’s that optional benefits are at risk. These programs disproportionately benefit older adults and people with disabilities.”

Those warnings are already translating into action at the local level, where counties are preparing residents for the real-life consequences of these policy shifts.

Locally in Los Angeles County, the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) is leading “Keep Your Benefits,” a campaign informing residents of social program changes and encouraging them to be mindful of application and renewal deadlines, and new eligibility requirements.

Several County departments are participating in the campaign, including Aging & Disabilities (AD), which has developed a complementary effort specifically tailored to older adults and people with disabilities.

Together, these initiatives reflect the broader message of the conference: informed communities, clear communication, and shared advocacy are essential to protecting critical benefits in a shifting policy landscape.