Joining with protesters nationwide, advocates chanted and shouted Tuesday outside the state Capitol in Hartford to protest against cuts in the Medicaid health insurance program.

Democrats fear that President Donald J. Trump and budget-cutter Elon Musk could enact as much as $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid, which covers a wide variety of Americans from birth until their final days in a nursing home. A crowd estimated by the state Capitol police at 400 protesters carried signs and chanted “the people have the power” and “hey, hey, ho, ho, Trump and Musk have got to go!”

While Trump says he wants to avoid cuts to the popular Medicaid program, the House Republicans have passed a resolution that calls for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion in Medicaid and other programs.

In a relatively rare show of unity, virtually the entire Democratic establishment in Connecticut gathered outside the Capitol in Hartford. That included Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, as well as U.S. House members Rosa DeLauro of New Haven, John B. Larson of East Hartford, and Joe Courtney of Vernon, among others. They gathered on a day that was known as The Medicaid Day of Action.

“This kind of turnout sends a message,” Blumenthal said to the enthusiastic crowd. “Donald Trump and Elon Musk, we’re not going to allow you to get away with cutting Medicaid because it is American health care. … We’re going to say, ‘Hell, no.’”

The Medicaid program is gigantic, providing billions of dollars to hospitals, nursing homes, and medical providers. Nationally, more than 70 million Americans are on Medicaid in a program that officials said is even larger than Medicare for the elderly. Nearly 1 million of those enrolled live in Connecticut.

Overall, 24% of American families are insured by Medicaid, and an estimated 40% of births are covered by Medicaid, officials said. More than 30% of those with disabilities, including many in wheelchairs, need Medicaid to cover their health bills, officials said.

DeLauro, 82, plays a key role as ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee as she scrutinizes federal dollars.

“This is not a fight that we can lose, my friends,” DeLauro told the crowd. “You know what? Medicaid is in red and blue states, my friends. … Congress is an institution that responds to external pressure. You are that external pressure!”

Murphy, who has stepped forward recently as a prominent national critic of Trump, said the battle to block Medicaid cuts is similar to the attempt to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, during the first Trump administration. During Trump’s 2016 campaign and Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, Republicans repeatedly said that they would “repeal and replace” Obamacare.

Many insiders believed that the Republicans had the votes to dismantle Obamacare, but U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona entered the Senate chamber in a dramatic scene in July 2017 and gave a thumbs-down that sank those efforts.

“When Donald Trump was in office the first time, their number one priority was repealing the Affordable Care Act,” Murphy told the outdoor crowd Tuesday. “They were determined to do it. Everybody said they would. The political pundits told us it was a done deal. This time, the number one thing they want to get done legislatively is cutting Medicaid in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Well, the first time around, we mobilized all across this country, in every single state, and we stopped the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. You have done this before, and you can do it again.”

Murphy added, “I understand this is an anxious moment. I understand the cost that comes with being a democracy.”

State Comptroller Sean Scanlon, whose office oversees health care for state employees, told the crowd not to give up.

“We cannot accept our country turning back the clock on the values that we hold dear in this country and here in Connecticut,” Scanlon told the enthusiastic crowd. “So every day I’m with you, your elected officials are with you, and the people of Connecticut are with us. Let’s do the work, and let’s stop this devastating cut from happening.”

Sen. Matt Lesser of Middletown said that 30,000 people in his Senate district alone count on Medicaid, and he called upon the crowd to send a message to Trump.

“We’ve got to be loud enough so he can hear us at the golf course down at Mar-a-Lago!” Lesser said.

One of the protesters at the rally, Pat Boudreau of Simsbury, Conn., said she never attended political rallies in the past, including during the first Trump term. So far this year, she has attended three by mid-March.

“There seemed to be enough guardrails that were functioning,” she said of Trump’s first term.

Now, she is concerned about potential cuts in key federal programs.

“I’ll be on Social Security soon,” Boudreau told The Courant. “We’re all one accident, a trip and fall away from being on Medicaid.”

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