News

***MEDIA ADVISORY FOR THURSDAY MAY 15TH AT 11 AM ET***

Republicans Charge Ahead With Bill to Rip Away Health Care from Millions to Fund Tax Breaks for the Wealthy 

Washington, D.C. — On Thursday, May 15th at 11 AM ET, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) will join Protect Our Care for a press conference condemning the Republican budget that includes the largest cuts to Medicaid in history. The Republican legislation will hike health care costs, close rural hospitals, and rip coverage away from millions.

This week, House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees have voted to advance their legislation to slash billions from Medicaid funding. Almost 80 million Americans rely on Medicaid, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. Americans across party lines oppose cuts to Medicaid, but Republicans are charging ahead to take away people’s health care in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. 

In addition to draconian Medicaid cuts, Republicans are raising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for tens of millions of people who buy coverage on their own. These Republican price hikes will force millions of middle-class families to lose their coverage altogether.

PRESS CALL

WHO:
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Senator Tina Smith (D-MN)
Senator Peter Welch (D-VT)
Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)
Leslie Dach, Chair of Protect Our Care

WHAT: Virtual Press Conference

WHERE: RSVP here

WHEN: Thursday May 15 at 11 AM ET

Washington D.C. — Today, Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees voted to devastate American health care so they can give tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations. This bill will rip health care away from millions of Americans, including children, seniors, caretakers, people battling cancer or addiction, and working families who don’t receive health care through their employers. With the largest Medicaid cuts in history, Republicans will force rural hospitals to close, push seniors out of nursing homes, strip women of affordable reproductive care, and leave working families without access to the most basic health services. At the same time, they are taking away tax credits that lower premium costs for middle-class families and sabotaging the Affordable Care Act. 

Republicans are lying when they call this bill a moderate compromise. It will cause the same harm as their previous bills, including over $700 billion in cuts to health care that will hike costs and rip coverage away from millions of people. House Republicans deliberately delayed debate until the dead of night in order to dodge accountability and the attention of the public, because they know just how cruel and unpopular these cuts are. Throughout the night, Republicans voted down amendment after amendment that would’ve helped protect coverage and care for those who need it. 

“These committee markups revealed Republicans’ true colors and proved what we’ve known all along: Republicans are trashing our health care to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “There’s nothing moderate about taking health care from working people to give tax breaks to the wealthy. Republicans rejected every attempt to protect people’s health care and instead pushed through the largest Medicaid cuts in history. Communities across the country are going to feel the devastating impacts of this legislation for generations. Hospitals will close, seniors will be forced out of nursing homes, people with disabilities will lose their support, and working families will lose access to lifesaving care – all so Trump and Republicans can make the rich even richer. As this legislation moves to the House floor, Republicans will have one more chance to put the needs of working families over billionaires and reject these cuts.” 

BACKGROUND

FACT SHEET: Spineless Republicans Are Gutting Health Care For Millions To Handout Billions In Tax Breaks To Wealthy Donors And Corporations 

Right now, the House Committees on Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means are debating legislation that slashes billions of dollars from Medicaid and rips health care away from millions of Americans so they can fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. This Republican budget is anything but moderate – hospitals will close, sick people will go untreated, and working families will lose access to basic health care. Their plan would rip health care from millions of Americans, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. Headlines from across the nation make clear that Republicans are trading Americans’ health care for billionaire tax breaks and putting the interests of Donald Trump and the wealthiest Americans and corporations over their constituents.

Patch: Cuts, Changes To Medicaid Proposed In New Bill: What To Know In RI.

• “House Republicans have unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that could have a big effect on Rhode Island’s roughly 366,000 Medicaid enrollees… The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a preliminary estimate that 8.6 million people would lose their health care coverage over a decade.”

New Jersey Monitor: Children’s Health Services Could See Trims Even Under Scaled-Back Medicaid Cuts.

• “The GOP is still considering capping federal spending by setting a fixed amount for how much states receive for every Medicaid enrollee… The agency predicted that to make up for lost federal dollars, states would have to reduce payments to health care providers, curb benefits or reduce enrollment. Some advocates also suggest that states might seek savings in other areas of their budgets, such as K-12 education.”
• “Medicaid cuts also could affect the health services offered in schools. Between $4 billion and $6 billion in annual Medicaid spending helps pay for school-based health services, including routine health screenings, preventive care, mental health care and physical, speech and occupational therapies. Children from underserved communities disproportionately rely on school-based health services.”

Maryland Matters: State officials, advocates fear impact of expected Medicaid cuts in House bill.

• “While state officials are still determining the full scope of the GOP proposal unveiled Sunday night, they anticipate that a “significant” portion of Maryland’s 1.55 million Medicaid recipients could lose coverage under the current proposal… About 25% of Marylanders receive health care through Medicaid.”

Across California: Cuts, Changes To Medicaid Proposed In New Bill: What To Know In CA. 

• “Over 8 million people in California could lose their health coverage under the GOP proposal, according to the California Budget and Policy Center, a progressive think tank that advocates for programs that benefit low-income individuals, people of color, and vulnerable communities.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Some Are Raising Alarms About the Potential Effects in Texas of Medicaid Cuts.

• “[O]ne in two births in Texas are covered under Medicaid and about 150,000 out of the 775,000 people in the 33rd Congressional District… Cutting Medicaid… will hurt not just Texans, but moms around the country.”
• “Russ Weaver, vice president of Mission, Community and Government Advocacy at Texas Health Huguley, said 13 percent of the hospital’s residents use Medicaid but 52 percent of its deliveries and 50 percent of its adolescence psychiatric services are for people who have Medicaid. To cut Medicaid, which does not completely cover the cost of a patient’s care, puts additional financial pressure on the hospital and raises concerns about what will happen to mothers and their babies, Weaver said.”

The Kansas City Star: Opinion: Missouri and Kansas Families Rely on Medicaid. Defend It.

• “A new analysis of the impacts of Medicaid cuts on Kansans commissioned by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund and REACH Healthcare Foundation warns that if Congress enacts proposed structural changes to Medicaid, such as a per capita cap, Kansas’ Medicaid program could lose up to $573 million in the first year alone and more than $5.19 billion over the next decade. Changes to provider taxes, state directed payments, and work requirements could cost the state more.”
• “Missouri could see as much as a quarter of its federal Medicaid funding cut, more than $3.9 billion per year, and as many as 350,000 people could lose health coverage.”

Houston Chronicle: How Republican Medicaid Cuts Could Impact Texas Hospitals and Patients.

• “‘Ultimately it’s a cut to hospitals and other health care providers,’ said Darbin Wofford, deputy director of health care at the non-profit Third Way. ‘As hospitals costs grow and states want to increase base payments or supplemental payments, now you’re tying the hands of the states.’”

The Detroit News: State Report Details Steep Cost of Potential Federal Medicaid Cuts for Michigan.

• “As the U.S. House plots cuts to the federal government’s health care spending, Michigan officials have calculated the potential risk of doing so to low-income Michiganians receiving Medicaid and found one congressional proposal, based on plans floated so far, would rescind coverage for up to 500,000 recipients.”

Huron Daily Tribune: Whitmer, MDHHS warn of major Medicaid losses under federal proposals.

• “More than 700,000 Michiganders — nearly 30% of all Medicaid beneficiaries — could lose coverage under “Republican-led” proposals in Congress, according to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer… Michigan hospitals could lose out on half a billion dollars in Medicaid funding annually, threatening thousands of jobs. As a result, hospitals in local and rural communities across Michigan could close, threatening access to care, raising prices, and forcing people to drive further for health care.”

13NewsNow: What’s at Stake? Virginia State Lawmakers Briefed on Potential Impacts of Federal Medicaid Cuts.

• “‘If Washington, D.C. changes these funding formulas or puts caps on the amount of funding provided to states, that leaves states with very challenging questions of, ‘Can we continue to provide services and cover the number of people covered under these programs?’ Or, ‘Do we have to make difficult choices about the level of services provided?’’ Walker said.”

Axios Raleigh: How the GOP’s proposed federal Medicaid cuts would impact N.C.

• “States have been bracing for details on how exactly House Republicans would slash Medicaid funding, with North Carolina estimating that in the worst-case scenario, the state could lose out on some $27 billion in federal Medicaid funds over the span of 10 years.”
• “The new proposal, which aims to slash federal spending to fund Republicans’ desired tax cuts, would implement work requirements for non-pregnant Medicaid recipients ages 19-64… The proposal would also increase the frequency of checks on Medicaid eligibility — to every six months rather than annually — and would restrict Medicaid funding for abortion providers.”

NJ Spotlight News: With Medicaid threatened, Kean’s committee seat may cost him.

• “The legislation teed up for debate would remove about 8.6 million people from Medicaid enrollment, according to a preliminary estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that advises Congress on economic policy… Within New Jersey, that would mean 200,000 people would be removed from Medicaid… Kean’s office did not respond to a request for comment about how he plans to vote or if he would try to amend the bill. About 73,000 people in his district are enrolled in Medicaid…”

WBay: Wisconsinites React to House Republicans’ Bill That Features Medicaid Cuts.

• “As state lawmakers debate the biennial budget, Medicaid is now a top concern, and if federal funding drops, those who provide care, like the Partnership Community Health Center with offices in the Fox Valley, are expecting the worst.”
• “‘One out of every six Wisconsinites is on Medicaid, and when we think about that, that’s somebody we know. There are three out of five children, and a majority of people live in rural areas,’ Savella said.”

MinnPost: GOP’s Medicaid overhaul would punish Minnesota for providing health care to undocumented immigrants.

• “Legislation released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee late Sunday would cut the share the federal government gives Minnesota and 13 other states, including California, Illinois and New York, from 90% to 80% because these states offer health care coverage to undocumented immigrants… the reduction in the federal matching rate would cost Minnesota more than $325 million a year… About 1.3 million Minnesotans, or about 23% of the state’s population, rely on Medicaid, known in the state as Medical Assistance, for their health care.”

NBC Connecticut: Connecticut Democrats Warn Congressional Medicaid Plan Will Mean Less Coverage.

• “Democrats said Monday proposed Medicaid changes by Congressional Republicans could result in many people in Connecticut losing their insurance.”
• Pareesa Charmchi Goodwin, executive director for the Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health, said the work requirement can result in people losing their coverage if they lose their job. She also warned, though, that the additional requirements and semi-annual reapplications can lead to more people losing their coverage because of paperwork or procedural problems. ‘It is a lot of additional layers of administration and bureaucracy that are very difficult for people to navigate, and people end up losing benefits,’ she said.”

Colorado Sun: Seeking spending cuts, GOP lawmakers target a tax hospitals love to pay.

• “‘These dollars allow me to care for patients who are enrolled in Medicaid and to break even rather than lose money,’ [Lincoln Health CEO Kevin Stansbury] said. ‘Without them, it would significantly impact our ability to survive.’ Every state except Alaska uses at least one provider tax to boost its federal Medicaid dollars. But Republicans who control Congress are looking for potential cuts in the nearly $900 billion Medicaid program to help fund an extension of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts… Lawmakers say they may curtail or eliminate provider taxes as part of legislation to enact Trump’s domestic agenda. ‘It’s infuriating,’ Stansbury said.”

WTVG: Local Mental Health Agencies Worried About Cuts to Medicaid.

• “‘To come up with an additional $11 million or whatever that number may look like, will be a huge transition,’ said Sylak. This could eventually mean modifying benefit packages and could mean more trips to places like emergency rooms for people in crisis. When in fact, mental health services are what they really need. That’s in part why advocates say it makes more sense to invest in things like mental health services, so people don’t end up in an ER or jail or rescue shelter, where again, people will have to make investments, but probably larger ones.

Today, House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee will debate legislation that slashes billions of dollars from Medicaid and rips health care away from millions of Americans, so they can pass tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Through job loss penalties, prohibitive reporting requirements, and other funding cuts, Republicans will take lifesaving care away from children, seniors, people fighting addiction or cancer, and so many more. At the same time, House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee are taking away tax credits that lower premium costs for middle-class families and sabotaging the ACA, all of which will raise costs and make health care inaccessible and unaffordable for American families. This Republican budget is anything but moderate – Hospitals will close, sick people will go untreated, and working families will lose access to basic health care, all so Trump and Congressional Republicans can give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. 

The Washington Post: GOP’s scaled-back Medicaid plan still threatens coverage for millions

• Republicans’ plans to cut health care as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and immigration agenda could strip Medicaid coverage from 8.7 million people and lead to 7.6 million more uninsured people over 10 years, according to an estimate from Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper in documents obtained by The Washington Post…Because Republicans aren’t aiming to change federal contributions to Medicaid, which is funded jointly by states and the federal government, the savings would largely come from people dropping out of the program.

NPR: Experts warn Congress cuts to Medicaid and addiction funding will mean more overdose deaths 

• This comes as drug policy experts, hospitals and recovery clinics are also bracing for possible cuts to Medicaid funding. Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expanded rapidly and now provides much of the insurance coverage in the U.S. for people seeking medical treatment for addiction. “It’s a scary time. We’re terrified about the possibility of what might happen if Medicaid is diminished significantly,” said Dr. Stephen Taylor with the American Society of Addiction Medicine. “Our hope is to be able to convince policymakers and people who have control of things to not make changes we know would devastate the people we take care of.”

Politico: Hospital groups slam cuts to Medicaid in megabill 

• Hospital groups argue that these changes will imperil health care facilities already struggling to keep their doors open, including those in low-income and rural areas that have a high number of Medicaid patients. “These hospitals, which already operate on thin margins, cannot absorb such losses without reducing services or closing their doors altogether,” said Bruce Siegel, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, which represents safety-net facilities.

The Washington Post: Nursing home and elder-care residents could be hit hard by potential Medicaid cuts 

• Medicaid paid $255 billion for long-term care services in 2022, including $59 billion for stays in institutional facilities, a category that includes nursing homes, according to KFF, a health policy organization. More than 60 percent of nursing home stays nationwide are financed through Medicaid. “Their coverage will be at risk,” said Katie Sloan Smith, president and chief executive of LeadingAge, a Washington lobbying association for operators of nonprofit senior-care facilities. “Either the home itself will have to make up for that loss in some way or they will simply have to say, ‘We can no longer support people on Medicaid’ and close those beds.”

Bloomberg: Want to Keep Fighting Fentanyl? Don’t Cut Medicaid 

• The committee draft likewise exempts people with “chronic” drug addiction from the new work mandates, but significant numbers of them could be ensnared anyway by the bill’s other new requirements on the expansion population. Those additional burdens will make it harder for people in drug treatment to get and keep the coverage they need, Orris says. 

The Washington Post: Now might be exactly the worst time to cut Medicaid and food stamps

• This combination — top-heavy tax cuts financed by low-income benefit cuts — would add up to possibly the largest single transfer of wealth from poor to rich in U.S. history, according to back-of-the-envelope numbers from Bobby Kogan, a former Senate budget staffer and researcher at the Center for American Progress….This legislation, however, would add more bureaucratic roadblocks to enrollment in critical benefit programs (sound familiar?) while narrowing eligibility requirements. So we might be facing a perfect storm: an economy teetering on the edge of recession, but without the usual mechanisms kicking in to curb the pain and spur recovery. In fact, program enrollment might be falling just as people lose jobs, depending on when the cuts take effect. That means more pain in the near term — and a more protracted recession.

Newsweek: Millions Face Losing Health Insurance Under Republican Proposal 

• The documents reveal that if enacted, the proposed subsidy rollback would strip coverage from millions, particularly hitting low-income adults who depend on enhanced premium tax credits to afford health plans under the ACA. The out-of-pocket costs for all privately insured Americans, including those with employment-based coverage, would increase by $450 for individuals and $900 for families as a result of the policy. The proposal could therefore have far-reaching implications for healthcare access and affordability, especially in states that did not expand Medicaid and where marketplace subsidies serve as a lifeline for lower-income residents.

Rolling Stone: Republican Medicaid Cuts Could Force Many Hospitals to ‘Close Their Doors’ 

• Conservatives appear ready to eliminate a key funding mechanism, called provider taxes, that have allowed states to provide supplemental payments to hospitals, doctors, and other providers in order to make up for lower reimbursements from Medicaid. According to an April report from The Wall Street Journal, delays in the processing of such payments by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have already forced hospitals in several states to lay off staff and pause payments to suppliers as the agency slow-walks supplemental funding approvals. 

Fierce Healthcare: Report: Tax, Medicaid Cuts Largely Benefit High-Income Families

• House Republicans have unveiled their plans to cut federal spending and extend tax cuts, but experts warn that funding the cuts by slashing Medicaid and other entitlements will largely benefit families with higher incomes. The House Energy & Commerce Committee released its budget reconciliation proposal late Sunday, after being tasked with identifying at least $880 billion in spending cuts. A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $912 billion, with $715 billion of that coming from cuts in healthcare.

Becker’s Hospital Review: ‘Cuts Of This Magnitude Cannot Be Absorbed’: Hospitals Slam Republicans’ Medicaid Proposal

• House Republicans on May 11 floated a bill that would impose up to $715 billion in Medicaid and ACA cuts over the next decade — reductions that hospital leaders warn would leave millions without coverage and put essential hospitals at risk of closure. The 160-page bill outlines several Medicaid provisions aimed at curbing federal spending, including: Implementing stricter eligibility requirements.

CBS News: Medicaid recipients could face work requirements under GOP bill. Here are the details

• Some policy experts who study Medicaid, food stamps and other social safety net programs say that there’s little evidence that work requirements increase employment, partly because most people who receive such aid and who are able to work are already doing so. About 92% of people under 65 years old who aren’t receiving disability benefits were working full- or part-time in 2023, or else unable to work because of duties such as attending school or caregiving obligations, according to a recent analysis from heath publication KFF. The remaining 8% were either retired, couldn’t find work or weren’t working for another reasons. 

Axios: Why work requirements for Medicaid “don’t work” 

• Typically the idea behind work requirements is to make sure people aren’t free-riding off of cash benefits — choosing not to work, and living off food stamps or welfare checks. The thing is: You can’t live off health insurance — it doesn’t pay the bills or provide food. There’s little evidence that people are somehow free-riding on Medicaid. 64% of adults with Medicaid work full time or part time, according to an analysis of census data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Another 32% are taking care of home or family, are ill or disabled, attend school, or are retired. 2% could not find work. And there’s another 2% in an “other” category.

MSNBC: The GOP’s plan could throw millions off Medicaid — and that’s just the start

• Republicans frame these mandates as a way to encourage people to work. But work requirements fail to increase employment, while only succeeding at tossing millions of people off Medicaid. And that’s exactly what Republicans in Congress are banking on. Work requirements — or paperwork requirements, more accurately — are little more than a bureaucratic cudgel. They impose layers of complex red tape on Medicaid enrollees, forcing them to clear administrative hurdles and prove their employment status or that they qualify for an exemption (such as caregiving or attending school). The primary result is health care coverage being taken away from eligible Americans.

Watch the Full Event Here.

Washington, D.C. — Today, House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06), Ranking Member on Health Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO-01), and Vice Ranking Member Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX-07) joined Protect Our Care for a press conference to call out Republicans’ plan to make the largest cuts to Medicaid in history. Tomorrow, Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees will pass legislation to raise health care costs and rip away coverage from millions to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. 

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released the text of their budget proposal, putting pen to paper on their plan to kick millions off their health care by enacting the largest cuts to Medicaid in history, raising costs on low-income families, closing rural hospitals, and enacting burdensome work requirements designed to deny people coverage. Their plan would rip health care from millions of Americans, including seniors, children, veterans, people with disabilities, workers who don’t get insurance through their jobs, and people who take care of their children or elderly parents. In addition to draconian Medicaid cuts, Republicans are raising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for tens of millions of people who buy coverage on their own. These Republican price hikes will force millions of middle-class families to lose their coverage altogether. 

“Don’t tell me that this is a moderate bill,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06). “This is worse than what Brett Guthrie and the Republicans on our committee originally proposed because they are literally kicking people off of their coverage. They are reducing services. They are making it much more difficult for people to get health care. The fight has begun now.”

“13.7 million Americans will lose their health insurance and that is not a small number,” said Ranking Member on Health Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO-01). “Any time you kick over 13 million people off of insurance, it’s extreme. They’re going to lose their Medicaid in order for Donald Trump and the Republicans to give tax cuts for Elon Musk and his billionaire friends.”

“Cutting this funding for Medicaid isn’t going to save money. It’s just going to shift the costs,” said Vice Ranking Member Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX-07). “One of the things they want to do is shift costs to the states. One of the things they want to do is just shift people completely off of Medicaid. That means that people will wind up not getting care when they need it and not getting preventative care. While we’re hearing that these are such reasonable provisions, they’re not and they’re going to impact people across the country. ”

“The Republican push to gut Medicaid is indefensible and the same draconian plan they have had all along,” said Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach. “In their outrageous crusade to hand out more tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, Republicans are betraying their voters and the millions of people who count on Medicaid, including seniors in nursing homes, children with disabilities, veterans, and hard-working families. Medicaid is not an ATM to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. It’s shameful that Republicans would even contemplate ripping away health care from millions to give another tax break to Donald Trump and his wealthy friends. Every dollar Republicans try to steal from Medicaid is a direct attack on people’s lives — and they know it.”