CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW)- Doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers from the Charlottesville and Albemarle area turned out dressed in white lab coats Friday evening on the Downtown Mall, as part of the “Health Cuts Kill” protest organized by Indivisible Charlottesville. 

The protestors engaged passersby, many of whom were heading to or coming from the Ting Pavilion for Fridays After Five, in conversation about several large cuts made by the federal government to medical programs, including Medicaid, work by the CDC, USAID, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

The crowd lit candles and observed a moment of silence for what organizers said will be 51,000 projected deaths in 2026, and every subsequent year to follow, because of changes made to the healthcare system in the last year, and the difficulty posed in obtaining medicine and care for those impacted by the cuts. 

Amid the dissonant strains of jazz from the pavilion next door, around 8:30 p.m., three speakers addressed the gathering, outlining the effects of the cuts. 

Former UVA associate professor of medicine and member of the Committee to Protect Healthcare Greg Gelburd began. Gelburd practiced family medicine for 40 years, beginning at a small family practice in Eastern North Carolina set up by the Federal Government, before moving to Charlottesville and starting Downtown Family Healthcare. He spoke to the crowd about the effect he saw on his patients getting the benefits of Medicaid while he saw them, and what happened when they lost it.   

“The same people that I saw at my practice, who had no insurance, then got Medicaid, will lose their insurance once again” Gelburd told Cville Right Now “I just want to do whatever I can. Honestly, it’s hard for me to sit back and do nothing.” 

According to a release from Indivisible Charlottesville, the “Health Cuts Kill” event is part of Seven Days in June, a larger nationwide movement against the healthcare cuts intended to be non-partisan.   

“We are physicians,” Gelburd said. “Do I kick out people who voted a different way than I did? That’s horrible. Medicine is for every single person.”

5th District Congressional candidate Tom Perriello, in attendance at the event, echoed Gelburd’s view. Perriello cast a Congressional vote to help pass the Affordable Care Act in 2009, when he was last the Democrat to represent the 5th District. 

“The idea that everyone should have affordable healthcare shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” Perriello told Cville Right Now. “It’s something that’s important for economic development, it’s important for the morality of our community, and increasingly its an issue about whether or not we’re pro-family in the community.” 

Co-founder of the Charlottesville Free Clinic and UVA health professor of medicine Dr. Mohan Nadkarni followed. Nadkarni, with his presence at the protest, was intentional in stating he was expressing his personal views and not those of the University of Virginia.   

“The State of Virginia can make a big difference. All politics is local,” Nadkarni said. “If we can convince the City of Charlottesville and the County of Albemarle that would help very much.” 

Speaking on his work leading the Charlottesville Free Clinic, Nadkarni equated the time in which the Free Clinic was founded to the current landscape and current numbers of uninsured Americans. He shared two patients’ stories of the ordeals they went through navigating the cuts to the healthcare system, attempting to show how valuable the care they were receiving from government programs were. 

“When we speak together, when we bear witness, when we light candles together, when we sing together, we know there’s hope for justice,” he said. “And when there’s hope for justice, lives can be saved.” 

Former Charlottesville Vice Mayor Kristin Szakos led the crowd in renditions of “This Little Light of Mine,” as well as another song she wrote. 

Gregg Winston, Board Member & Treasurer of the Child Health Partnership and a Board Member of the Charlottesville Free Clinic, as well as the Co-Chair of the Move2Health Equity Coalition and a former healthcare executive, took the stage last.  The Charlottesville native outlined his personal mission to help people of the community gain easier access to healthcare, and ongoing effort to use his industry knowhow and community connections to help create a volunteer service to help people fill out their forms and navigate the new regulations.