A fierce debate about the future of Medicaid is currently underway in Congress, as 80 million Americans who rely on the program are hearing mixed messages from Washington.See the story in the video above”Medicaid has never been on the chopping block,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a press briefing earlier this month. “They have left no doubt Medicaid is on the chopping block,” Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) said Wednesday, referencing Republican budget plans.The public health insurance program covers 1 in 5 Americans, from low-income adults and children to seniors and people with disabilities. The funding dispute stems from GOP efforts to slash spending as they look for ways to pay for proposed tax cuts, a top priority for President Donald Trump. President Trump told Fox News this week that Medicaid is “not going to be touched,” unless fraud or undocumented immigrants are found in the system. But Democrats argue those assurances run counter to the budget proposal Trump is backing in Congress, which could pave the way for broader cuts. “Congressional Republicans are ripping away health care from our most vulnerable to fund tax breaks for their wealthy friends,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin.The House’s budget plan instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to come up with at least $880 billion in savings. That’s more than half of the reductions directed in the budget resolution. A GOP staffer involved in discussions said decisions about where those cuts will come from still haven’t been made.Speaker Johnson has said that Republicans are targeting fraud, rather than benefits. “If you eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid, you have a huge amount of money that you can spend on real priorities for the country,” Johnson said. But even some Republicans are raising concerns, which could be make-or-break for the razor-thin GOP majority. “My comment back to the Speaker is: how are you going to cut $880 billion without significantly cutting Medicaid? Show me, because I’m not going to vote for it unless you can show me that it will not significantly degrade children’s health,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska. Both Bacon and Johnson support adding work requirements for certain able-bodied adults as a condition of receiving coverage. According to an analysis from the health policy research group KFF, 64 percent of adults on Medicaid are already working full or part-time. Others cite barriers to work such as disabilities, caretaking responsibilities and school attendance. “So about 8% fall into this group of people who are either looking for work or who don’t report a particular reason for not working,” said KFF vice president and Medicaid program director Robin Rudowitz. In Arkansas alone, implementing Medicaid work requirements resulted in more than 18,000 people losing coverage before a federal court struck down the rule.Rudowitz said other proposals being floated in Congress would reduce federal spending and shift more responsibility to states, forcing them to make difficult decisions. “They would either need to probably raise revenue or cut other spending in their state budget to make up those costs, or they would have to make reductions in their Medicaid program and that could be restricting enrollment, cutting rates for providers or plans or restricting benefits. There are no easy solutions to get to that magnitude of cuts,” Rudowitz said. The Senate adopted a budget amendment this week from Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that said Medicaid and Medicare would be strengthened during the budget process. All but two Republicans supported it, but Democrats argued there were loopholes in the language.
A fierce debate about the future of Medicaid is currently underway in Congress, as 80 million Americans who rely on the program are hearing mixed messages from Washington.
See the story in the video above
“Medicaid has never been on the chopping block,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a press briefing earlier this month.
“They have left no doubt Medicaid is on the chopping block,” Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) said Wednesday, referencing Republican budget plans.
The public health insurance program covers 1 in 5 Americans, from low-income adults and children to seniors and people with disabilities.
The funding dispute stems from GOP efforts to slash spending as they look for ways to pay for proposed tax cuts, a top priority for President Donald Trump.
President Trump told Fox News this week that Medicaid is “not going to be touched,” unless fraud or undocumented immigrants are found in the system.
But Democrats argue those assurances run counter to the budget proposal Trump is backing in Congress, which could pave the way for broader cuts.
“Congressional Republicans are ripping away health care from our most vulnerable to fund tax breaks for their wealthy friends,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin.
The House’s budget plan instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to come up with at least $880 billion in savings. That’s more than half of the reductions directed in the budget resolution.
A GOP staffer involved in discussions said decisions about where those cuts will come from still haven’t been made.
Speaker Johnson has said that Republicans are targeting fraud, rather than benefits.
“If you eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicaid, you have a huge amount of money that you can spend on real priorities for the country,” Johnson said.
But even some Republicans are raising concerns, which could be make-or-break for the razor-thin GOP majority.
“My comment back to the Speaker is: how are you going to cut $880 billion without significantly cutting Medicaid? Show me, because I’m not going to vote for it unless you can show me that it will not significantly degrade children’s health,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska.
Both Bacon and Johnson support adding work requirements for certain able-bodied adults as a condition of receiving coverage.
According to an analysis from the health policy research group KFF, 64 percent of adults on Medicaid are already working full or part-time. Others cite barriers to work such as disabilities, caretaking responsibilities and school attendance.
“So about 8% fall into this group of people who are either looking for work or who don’t report a particular reason for not working,” said KFF vice president and Medicaid program director Robin Rudowitz.
In Arkansas alone, implementing Medicaid work requirements resulted in more than 18,000 people losing coverage before a federal court struck down the rule.
Rudowitz said other proposals being floated in Congress would reduce federal spending and shift more responsibility to states, forcing them to make difficult decisions.
“They would either need to probably raise revenue or cut other spending in their state budget to make up those costs, or they would have to make reductions in their Medicaid program and that could be restricting enrollment, cutting rates for providers or plans or restricting benefits. There are no easy solutions to get to that magnitude of cuts,” Rudowitz said.
The Senate adopted a budget amendment this week from Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that said Medicaid and Medicare would be strengthened during the budget process. All but two Republicans supported it, but Democrats argued there were loopholes in the language.
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