Extremist Democrat Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed has repeatedly denounced doctors who – like his wife – do not accept Medicaid, by claiming they’re discriminating against minorities, either by refusing to accept Medicaid or treating patients like “half citizens[s]” when they do, a new expose’ reveals.
In a report published Thursday, The Washington Free Beacon examines multiple campaign speeches by El-Sayed, in which plays the race card to smear doctors who don’t accept Medicaid, using hackneyed Democrat buzzwords such as “structural racism,” “long-held deep racism,” “segregation,” “systematically poor” and “discriminate.”
"If you're low income in this country—and because of the nature of structural racism, too many black and brown folks are low income in this country—you're on Medicaid,” El-Sayed told a candidate forum in April, tying accusations of income inequality and racism (and possibly immigration) to his condemnation of doctors who reject or dislike Medicaid participation.
Because Medicaid pays half their usual rate, doctors view and treat a covered patient like a “half citizen,” El-Sayed claimed:
"That means you can't get appointments.
“That means they push you to the back.
“That means they discriminate against you, because they know that the care that your body requires is going to reimburse at half the rate.”
Black women on Medicaid often can’t find a primary care physician, and are "discriminated against at the point of care" if they do, El-Sayed said in a May interview.
At best, El-Sayed’s recriminations are ironic – and, at worst, hypocritical – given that his wife is a practicing psychiatrist who refuses to accept Medicaid, as Free Beacon’s research finds:
“According to El-Sayed's logic, his own wife, psychiatrist Sarah Jukaku, is one of those discriminatory doctors.
“Jukaku runs a private practice in Ann Arbor called Mind Work Psychiatry. She opted out of Medicare in 2025, according to records first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, meaning she cannot bill the program. She is not listed as an eligible provider on any of the six insurance plans that provide coverage for Medicaid or the state-equivalent Healthy Michigan program in Washtenaw County, where her practice is based, a Free Beacon review found.”
What’s more, the website of El-Sayed’s wife’s practice declares that she “is out of network for all insurance companies,” requiring all her patients - no matter how poor or racially-disadvantaged - to foot the bill for the full cost of her services.
