Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive Thursday calling on the state health department to create a report on how big proposed cuts to the federal Medicaid program would affect Michigan.

The executive directive instructs the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to create a report within 30 days detailing the effects of a congressional Republican proposal that could cut $880 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. Whitmer wants data and personal stories to help congressional Democrats shut down a Republican budget resolution if it includes Medicaid cuts. But she said it is already clear the impact in Michigan would be huge.

“Statewide, Medicaid covers 2.6 million people,” she said. “That’s over a quarter of our population. “That number includes a million children, nearly 170,000 seniors and 300,000 people with disabilities.”

Whitmer was flanked by health care workers as she signed the directive at a hospital in Royal Oak. She said hospitals, clinics and other providers would have to reduce services and find other ways to make up for lost funding if Medicaid is slashed.

Whitmer said rural hospitals, which are also large local employers, would likely be the hardest hit. She said using Medicaid cuts to extend tax cuts and reduce the federal budget is a bad deal for taxpayers.

“This won’t make government more efficient,” she said. “It’ll just raise your costs, eliminate local jobs and put lives in danger.”

Republican leaders have said they are not targeting Medicaid, but it is not clear how they would hit their rollback goals without big cuts to Medicaid and other entitlement programs.

“There’s simply no way to do it without drastic cuts to Medicaid,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), who serves on the GOP-led congressional committee that is supposed to come up with health care cuts and savings. “And let me make this very clear, we will make sure every Republican is on record on what they are cutting.”