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As Senate Republicans Race to Pass Their “Big, Ugly, Bill,” the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office Confirmed That Republicans Are Cutting $1 Trillion from Medicaid and Ripping Health Care From 17 Million To Fund Tax Breaks for Billionaires

As Senate Republicans worked through the weekend to push their “Big, Ugly Bill” to a vote, nationwide coverage continues to demonstrate just how devastating and unpopular this bill is for the American people. The House’s version of the bill was bad for health care and for ordinary Americans, but Senate Republicans managed to make it even worse, expanding the health care cuts and kicking even more hardworking Americans off their health care. New analysis from the nonpartisan CBO found that 17 million Americans would lose their health care – one million more than under the House’s version – and more than $1 trillion would be cut from Medicaid, confirming that Senate Republicans made the bill even worse for hospitals and Americans’ health care. 

Not only does this weekend’s coverage highlight how unpopular the bill is across the political spectrum, it calls out Republicans for their continued lies about what this bill would do. This bill gives billionaires and big corporations massive tax breaks by ripping health care from millions of children, seniors, people with disabilities, people fighting cancer or addiction, and hardworking families who don’t get coverage through their employers. Not only will people lose their care, hundreds of hospitals and nursing homes will shut down and middle-class and low-income Americans will face higher costs. The pressure is on so-called moderates like Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins to listen to the outcry from their states and  reject this devastating bill.

NATIONAL HEADLINES

New York Times: G.O.P. Bill Has $1.1 Trillion in Health Cuts and 11.8 Million Losing Care, C.B.O. Says 

  • Republicans’ marquee domestic policy bill that is making its way through the Senate would result in deeper cuts and more Americans losing health insurance coverage than the original measure that passed the House last month, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. According to a report published late Saturday night, the legislation would mean 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034. Federal spending on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare would be reduced by more than $1.1 trillion over that period — with more than $1 trillion of those cuts coming from Medicaid alone.

Washington Post: Senate GOP Tax Bill Includes Largest Cut To U.S. Safety Net In Decades

  • The Senate Republican tax bill speeding to passage includes the biggest reduction of funding for the federal safety net since at least the 1990s, targeting more than $1 trillion in social spending. Although the legislation is still estimated to cost more than $3 trillion over the next decade, the Senate GOP tax bill partially pays for its large price tag by slashing spending on Medicaid and food stamps, which congressional Republicans maintain are rife with fraud.

KFF Health News: In a First, Trump and GOP-Led Congress Prepare To Swell Ranks of U.S. Uninsured

  • More than 26 million Americans lacked health insurance in the first six months of 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The uninsured are mostly low-income adults under age 65, and people of color, and most live in the South and West. The uninsured rate in the 10 states that, like Georgia, have not expanded Medicaid to nearly all low-income adults was 14.1% in 2023, compared with 7.6% in expansion states, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Health policy researchers expect the number of uninsured to swell as the second Trump administration and a GOP-controlled Congress try to enact policies that explicitly roll back health coverage for the first time since the advent of the modern U.S. health system in the early 20th century. Under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — budget legislation that would achieve some of President Donald Trump’s priorities, like extending tax cuts mainly benefiting the wealthy — some 10.9 million Americans would lose health insurance by 2034, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office based on a House version of the budget bill. A Senate version of the bill could result in more people losing Medicaid coverage, with reductions in federal spending and rules that would make it harder for people to qualify.

The Bulwark: A $1 Trillion Medicaid Cut Is THIS Close to Happening. Here’s What It’d Look Like 

  • Enid Rodriguez Medicaid can make, because it’s made a huge difference for her. […] “Medicaid has literally been a lifesaver,” she told me this week, when we met at the Community Care Clinic of Rowan County, where she used to get care. But there was a tinge of anxiety in her voice, because, she said, she is worried the cuts in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill will leave her without coverage. “I wouldn’t be able to see the cardiologist who makes sure my heart is okay, the gastroenterologist who’s treating my gastrointestinal problems, the weight-loss specialist,” Rodriguez said. Medicaid isn’t perfect, she said, and she doesn’t expect government programs to provide everything she and her husband need. But, she said, “we shouldn’t have to work fifty-, sixty-hour weeks to pay our bills, and still struggle to take care of ourselves when it comes to our medical expenses.” But worry she must. Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans like Rodriguez is in jeopardy. In fact, it could be doomed in a matter of days.

Semafor: Senate Republicans Set Up Surprise Vote On Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion

  • Senate Republicans are setting up a surprise vote within the next 24 hours that could effectively end Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid for future recipients, with Majority Leader John Thune backing it. Thune’s endorsement aligns with key Senate conservatives who want even more aggressive Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s party-line tax and spending cuts bill. The vote can pass with only three GOP defections — and if it succeeds, it could prompt a rebellion against the bill among House Republican moderates.

New York Times: Why a G.O.P. Medicaid Requirement Could Set States Up for Failure

  • The strict Medicaid work requirement at the center of the Republicans’ major policy bill wouldn’t just require millions of poor Americans to prove they are employed to sign up for health insurance. It would also require dozens of states to quickly build expensive and complex software systems to measure and track who is eligible. This new responsibility for states, whose existing Medicaid computer systems are often outdated, would be accompanied by reduced federal funding through other changes in the bill. The result, according to state officials, software developers and policy experts, could be major failures in state systems for enrolling people in Medicaid.

Politico: Trump Pollster Warns Senate GOP Against Deeper Medicaid Cuts

  • Jim McLaughlin, one of President Donald Trump’s top pollsters, said Hill Republicans should nix Senate Republicans’ deeper Medicaid cuts in the megabill or risk deep backlash from voters. “The Senate needs to go back to the House version on Medicaid in the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act], just like the president wants,” Jim McLaughlin, who runs McLaughlin & Associates, told POLITICO Saturday. He continued: “The working class Americans who gave President Trump his overwhelming victory as well as majorities in the House and Senate deserve nothing less.”

Politico: Louisiana Hospitals Warn Mike Johnson Of ‘Devastation’ From Megabill

  • Every major health system in Louisiana is warning Speaker Mike Johnson and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation that the Senate GOP’s planned Medicaid cuts “would be historic in their devastation.” The group sent the warning in a letter that also went to Majority Leader Steve Scalise and GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician who has also raised concerns about the cuts. The health systems said the Senate’s revised text hits states like Louisiana even harder than previous iterations and would slash more than $4 billion in Medicaid funding for the state’s health care providers.

IN THE STATES

ALASKA

  • New York Times: Opinion: Alaska Cannot Survive This Bill
  • Alaska Public Media: Legislators Argue Cuts In GOP Megabill Would Mean ‘Chaos’ For Alaska
  • Alaska Public Media: Advocates Worry ‘Big, Beautiful’ GOP Bill Would Push Alaskans Off Medicaid
  • Alaska Beacon: Alaska Becomes A Focus Of Last-Minute Changes To Big Federal Bill, As U.S. Senate Starts Debate
  • The Alaska Memo: The ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill Is Big And Ugly For Alaska
  • Anchorage Daily News: Opinion: The Proposed Medicaid Cuts Would Be A Disaster For Alaska Health Care 
  • Anchorage Daily News: Opinion: Medicaid Isn’t Just For ‘Them.’ It’s A Lifeline For All Of Us. 

ARIZONA

  • ABC 15: Local Medicaid Recipient Reacts To Potential Cuts From Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill
  • Arizona Daily Star: Local Opinion: Medicaid Saved My Mother’s Life
  • Tucson Sentinel: GOP Leaders In U.S. Senate Struggle To Lessen Pain Of Medicaid Cuts For Rural Hospitals 
  • Arizona Copper Courier: Arizona Advocates Warn Against Republican Cuts To Kids’ Healthcare, Food Programs

KENTUCKY

MAINE

  • Newsweek: Susan Collins Gets Warning From Maine Voters – Poll
  • Maine Morning Star: Calling Medicaid A ‘Lifeline’ For Mainers, Health Advocates Urge Collins To Oppose GOP Budget Bill  
  • Maine Public: Health Care Advocates Say Medicaid Cuts Will Have Severe Impacts In Maine 
  • Fox23Maine / KIMA: State Rep. Urges Sen. Collins to Vote Against ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ 
  • Maine Morning Star: Gov. Mills Warns Maine Cannot Absorb Cuts In Republicans’ ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’
  • News Center Maine: Sen. Susan Collins Votes To Move Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Forward 
  • WGME: Maine Restauranters Speak Out Against GOP’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ 
  • Bangor Daily News: Opinion: Rural Maine Can’t Afford Hospital Losses That Republican Reconciliation Bill Would Bring
  • Maine Public: Health Care Advocates Say Changes To ACA Marketplace Plans Threaten Maine’s Healthcare System
  • Portland Press Herald: Maine’s Hospitals Say They’re Under Threat By Proposed Medicaid Cuts

WEST VIRGINIA

  • Public News Service: Report: WV Small Business Labor Force At Risk From Medicaid Cuts 
  • WVVA: Two Local Hospitals Could Close Under ‘Big Beautiful Bill’, Study Says