GOP seeks to walk the line on Medicaid cuts
By: Riley Beggin
USA Today
WASHINGTON - House republicans plan to enact work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks for Medicaid, according to a proposal release late on May 11 [2025] by a key GOP-led committee.
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However, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's 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 cans' party-line bill to implement President Donald Trump's agenda.
..... The Energy and Commerce Committee was directed to find $800 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 Americans.
..... Committee chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Kentucky, told the Wall Street Journal he expects the biggest push back to come from Republicans who feel it "doesn't go far enough."
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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.
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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 proved 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 provisions to bar people from using Medicaid unless there citizenship, nationality or immigration status has been verified.
..... It's not clear whether the proposed changes meet the $880 billion in savings the committee was directed to find. The committee will meet May 13 [2025] 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 essay published May 12, [2025] Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, wrote, "It's safe to say the Trump coalition was not pulling the lever for Medicaid cuts in November." [2025] Instead, Hawley wrote, working families deserve a cap on prescription drug prices and tax cuts. "what we should not do is climate their health care," he said.
..... Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, also slammed the House GOP for its proposal, saying Trump's party has :defied the will of the American public by proposing the largest Medicaid cut in history."
..... "This bill must not pass," said Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.
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Congressional Republicans aim to finish their spending package by July 4. [2025] But the hard deadline will come at the beginning of August, [2025] when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned the United States will likely hit its debt limit.