At 89, Sloane girds for fight to save Medicaid/Medicare
Former mayor the feature speaker at Louisville rally against funding cuts
Harvey Sloane needed help to rise from his seat. Leaning on his cane, he gingerly crossed the outdoor stage to a microphone, where despite his fragile appearance, the 89-year-old former Louisville mayor and vocal critic of the Trump administration showed he’s still a fighter.
“Have cane, am able!” the silver-hair Sloane said as he defiantly raised his walking stick in the air.
Sloane, twice mayor of the city from 1973-77 and again from 1982-86, was the marquee speaker in an all-star lineup of speakers at a Saturday’s Fight for Medicare and Medicaid rally in Jefferson Square Park. He was joined on stage by former Louisville Metro Mayors Jerry Abramson and Greg Fischer, former U.S. Rep John Yarmuth, and the current congressman from Louisville, Morgan McGarvey.
They were there to sound the alarm against the catastrophic effects that funding cuts to Medicaid and Medicare in the so-called One Big Beautiful Act will have on the neediest Kentuckians.
A physician who came to Kentucky in 1964 as part of President John F. Kennedy’s Appalachian Health program, Sloane saw firsthand how many Kentuckians in the eastern counties had little to no access to healthcare.
He said Medicare and Medicaid, pushed through by the Johnson administration in 1965 with the rest of the Great Society initiatives, changed all that.
“It was a time of total excitement, and we were able to start the Park DuValle Neighborhood Health Center at that time because of that support.” Sloane founded the center in 1966.
The One Big Beautiful Act, or the One Big Ugly Act as its many detractors call it, erased many of those hard-fought-for gains.
“Most of this is gone now, folks,” Sloane said. “It went away. We really didn’t understand it when they had these bills before us.”
Laying out a three-step response plan, Sloane warned the crowd to first “know what’s going to happen.” Many parts of the new act don’t take effect until 2026 or 2027.
Second, “we’ve got to fight,” he said to rousing applause. “If we don’t fight, we don’t win.”
Third, “we’ve got to vote, not only at the federal level, but at the state level to bring about change.”
Despite his age, and the fact that he spoke while seated, Sloane sounded invigorated by thought of the fight that lays ahead.
“It’s so exciting for me to be here and be a part of this beginning,” he said, “this beginning of this fight to reestablish what we’ve had and what we should have in the future.”
At 89, Sloane goes into this fight thinking not just of the people who need these programs now, but of future generations, including those in his own family.
“Folks, I don’t want my [great-]grandchildren to ask me, ‘Grand Harv -- that’s what they call me – what did you do when the great deluge happened, when everybody lost all their healthcare? I don’t want to say, well I watched television, and I swore to myself. No, we want to say we did something.”
Although “1.2 million Kentuckians rely on Medicaid,” as a stark black and white sign on the stage made clear to everyone, some sources quote even higher figures.
Rep. McGarvey, who led off the speakers, put in stark terms what’s at stake in the fight to turn back the cuts:
“With the cruelty of Donald Trump’s bill, 133,000 of our rural neighbors are going to lose their healthcare,” he said. “Thirty-five of our rural hospitals will close. That’s more than any state in the country. You don’t think this impacts you? It impacts every single one of us.”
“Y’all, this is important,” McGarvey warned. “This is not some political rally; this is life and death! Medicaid isn’t a budget line; it’s a lifeline, it keeps our friends and neighbors safe. It’s keeps them healthy; it keeps them going to the doctor.”
The Louisville Democratic Party sponsored the rally. “We need people to fight for Medicaid at every single level of government,” said Logan Gatti, the party chair.
As he wrapped up, Sloane, a proud Democrat, couldn’t resist taking a shot at U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who made an infamous remark about his constituents while urging his Republican colleagues to support the bill.
“We can’t be like what our senior senator said, ‘well they’ll get over it.’ Well, I’m not getting over it, are you getting over it?”
A chorus of “no’s” echoed back.
“We’re not getting over it,” Sloane concluded, “and in Jefferson County, the fight is starting right now.
Former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloane, seen here in red, urged hundreds of demonstrators Sunday to fight to get back healthcare benefits stripped away by the One Big Beautiful Act. He is pictured on stage with former U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (left) and former Louisville Metro Mayors Jerry Abramson and Greg Fischer. (Lee Chottiner photo)