Earlier this month, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward and Harrisburg Republicans sent a letter asking the Trump administration to shut down a Medicaid program designed to help new mothers, children and poor families.

I previously served as the acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and have more than 20 years of policy experience relating to Medicaid and other health care programs. But it doesn’t take that level of expertise to see that cutting health care for our most vulnerable citizens — at a time when high prices are squeezing Pennsylvanians across the commonwealth — is not only cruel but irresponsible.

Ward argues Medicaid expansion is too expensive. This is a familiar refrain from her, as she’s opposed virtually any program that isn’t tax cuts for the wealthy since she’s been in office. What she is missing, however, is that programs like this actually save the commonwealth money. In fact, Medicaid waivers like this must prove cost savings after five years, or else they are shuttered.

Beyond saving the Pennsylvania taxpayers, Medicaid expansion has been proven to reduce medical debt and improve health outcomes. That’s why even Republican-led states, such as Missouri, Oklahoma, Idaho and Nebraska, have quietly expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act when given the chance.

If Ward wants to save the commonwealth money, why is she trying to kill a program that would accomplish just that while providing health care access to thousands of poor families and children?

The answer is simple: She is putting her allegiance to President Trump and congressional Republicans ahead of her duty to represent and fight for Pennsylvanians.

It’s no secret Trump and the GOP House members are coming for Medicaid. The Republican majority, including every GOP member from Pennsylvania, just voted for a budget that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says cannot work without significant cuts to ­Medicaid, a program more than 2.7 million Pennsylvanians rely on.

By pushing for more cuts to Medicaid, Ward is bringing Washington dysfunction to Pennsylvania, and putting party politics ahead of the people she was elected to serve. Ward doesn’t care about fiscal responsibility; otherwise she wouldn’t be trying to cut cost-saving programs.

She cares about demonstrating to her party boss (Trump) that she is not only loyal, but willing to put her loyalty to him ahead of her sworn oath to fight for the people of Pennsylvania.

This is not what Pennsylvania needs. Regardless of party affiliation, everyone who represents the commonwealth should be committed to improving the lives of Pennsylvanians — not throwing them under the bus to appease party bosses.

If Kim Ward believes that endangering the lives of thousands of Pennsylvania children and poor families is a fair price to advance her own political ambitions, then she has no business representing the commonwealth.

Meg Snead is former acting secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

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