The House Energy and Commerce Committee was directed to cut $880 billion, mostly from Medicaid.
Millions could lose coverage under GOP plan to cut Medicaid per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office
Republicans must cut over $800 billion in programs – with experts saying their is no way to make those cuts without impacting medicaid.
- House Republicans plan to enact work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks for Medicaid.
- But the proposal does not pursue some of the deeper cuts that lawmakers had considered.
- GOP fiscal hawks may oppose the plan.
WASHINGTON – House Republicans plan to enact work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks for Medicaid, according to a House Energy and Commerce Committee plan released late on May 11.
However, the proposal does not pursue some of the deeper cuts that lawmakers had considered, including lowering the federal match rates with states or capping per-person federal spending in Medicaid.
The highly anticipated plan is expected to be a part of Republicans’ party-line bill to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The Energy and Commerce Committee was directed to find $880 billion in savings. Trump had ruled out cuts to Medicare and Social Security, so Medicaid was the largest remaining program on the chopping block.
But the proposal appears aimed at enticing GOP moderates who had said they cannot vote for major changes to the program that provides health insurance for more than 71 million low-income Americans.
Committee chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Kentucky, told the Wall Street Journal he expects the biggest pushback to come from Republicans who feel it “doesn’t go far enough.”
It sets up a potential showdown with fiscal conservatives, who have pushed their colleagues to overhaul the program and want the final Republican tax package to cut as much money as it spends.
Lawmakers are also proposing to bar the use of Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender transition procedures for people under age 18; lowering the federal match rate for states that use their Medicaid infrastructure to provide health care to undocumented immigrants; and reducing cost-sharing for Medicaid Expansion patients who make more than the federal poverty level, which is currently $32,150 for a family of four.
The proposal also includes a provision to bar people from using Medicaid unless their citizenship, nationality or immigration status has been verified.
It’s not immediately clear whether the proposed changes meet the $880 billion in savings the committee was directed to find. The committee will meet Tuesday to consider the legislation.
Any cuts to Medicaid are sure to meet with strong opposition, and not just from Democrats. In a New York Times opinion essay published May 12, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote: “It’s safe to say the Trump coalition was not pulling the lever for Medicaid cuts in November.”
Instead, Hawley wrote, working families deserve a cap on prescription drug prices and tax cuts. “What we should not do is eliminate their health care,” he said.
Congressional Republicans aim to finish their spending package by July 4. But the hard deadline will come at the beginning of August, when Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent warned the United States will likely hit its debt limit.
The central piece of the package will be an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year. The president also wants to eliminate tax on tips, overtime and Social Security payments.
The bill is also expected to roll back several clean energy provisions implemented under former President Joe Biden and increase spending on defense and border security.
Republicans plan to pass the package using a process called “reconciliation,” which allows them to bypass the filibuster in the Senate and negates the need for Democratic support.