Cuts to Medical help that could cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance are on a list of budget options currently circulating among House Republicans, according to a new report from Policy.
The list comes from the House Budget Chairman’s office. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), per Politico, whose sources stressed that the idea was only one item on a “menu” of possibilities for spending reductions. The ambitious list also offers drastic discounts food aid and a reduction in subsidies for clean energy which were a landmark achievement of the president Joe Biden.
Attempts to reach Arrington’s office over the weekend were unsuccessful, but the list of options follows closely with the recommendations he made through his committee last year.
In total, all of the new cuts would reduce federal spending by $5.7 trillion over ten years. This would represent a significant change in the amount the federal government spends – and in the services provided to the American public.
But the potential scale of the cuts would also make the proposals difficult to adopt, given Republicans“a slight majority of three seats in the House and Democrats» close to a certain opposition.
THE Medicaid cuts will include two elements which will be familiar to anyone who remembers it Republicans are trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. ObamacareDonald Trump first became president in 2017.
One of these is a call to “equalize Medicaid payments for able-bodied adults.” This is the kind of language many conservatives now use to describe the end of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansionunder which the federal government provides additional funds to states to make Medicaid available to anyone with income below or just above the poverty line.
The other familiar element is a call to “per capita ceilings» in Medicaid, which would have the effect of END the federal government’s commitment to funding the program at whatever level is necessary to cover all eligible individuals. The Republican Party’s proposal is a version of what’s called a “block grant” — effectively giving states a predetermined amount of money for programs, rather than giving them an open-ended funding commitment. from Washington.
Republicans have long called for these kinds of changes, arguing that publicly funded health programs are wasteful, excessively burdensome on taxpayers and ultimately do more harm than good, even for people in need.
“We should consider whether we are doing [Medicaid] the right way,” said Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) after the election. Novemberas Republicans for the first time began talking about their Congressional agenda for this year. “Block grants make a lot of sense. »
But these arguments have rarely proven convincing, largely due to independent projections consistently showing that implementing such policies would actually result in deprive millions – perhaps even tens of millions – of Americans of their health insurance.
These fears were a key reason why Republican legislation to repeal Obamacare ultimately failed to pass, generating political conflict. backlash against the party on health care policy that still persists today.
Yet Medicaid remains the subject of conservative criticism. Project 2025The comprehensive Heritage Foundation document, which conservative authors hoped would serve as a model for governance for a second Trump term, called for a radical overhaul of the program.
And Medicaid could be a particularly tempting target now, given Republicans’ promises to cut federal spending and find offsets for the sweeping tax cuts they hope to implement.
Of course, removing that much money from the program would have significant political consequences, just as it would have in 2017.
“A seemingly small and technical change [ending the extra funding for Medicaid expansion] would eliminate coverage for millions of people and expose states to enormous financial risk,” Larry Levittexecutive vice president of health policy at research organization KFF, told HuffPost.
Political perspectives
It remains an open question whether Republican Party leaders would seriously push for these kinds of Medicaid cuts again. It’s also unclear whether they could succeed with such a slim Republican majority in the House.
Some of the other items on the list would face similar political difficulties. The proposed food aid costs would affect tens of millions of Americans, while cutting clean energy subsidies would undermine a manufacturing boom that is generating jobs and money across the country – including a new “drum belt” of electric vehicle production infrastructure throughout the South. Already, House Republicans representing some of these districts have been pressure to keep the subsidies in place.
Some Democrats reacted quickly to the report on Friday, juxtaposing the proposals with Republican plans to cut taxes in a way that overwhelmingly in favor the richest Americans.
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“Republicans are preparing for class war against ordinary families in America,” Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. “This list lays out a plan to increase child hunger, strip tens of millions of people of their health insurance, and lay off hundreds of thousands of clean energy workers to fund tax benefits for the rich.”
Not everything on the Republican ticket would be as controversial — or at least as partisan. Among the health care proposals it is considering is a call to “site independent” payments in Medicare, a cost-cutting measure designed to prevent hospitals and other health care providers from gaming the payment system to make more money.
The proposal has support from leaders in both parties, although it would also face strong opposition from health care industry groups, who could lose revenue as a result.
