Dive Brief:
Hundreds of advocacy groups are calling on a key Republican lawmaker to reject potential cuts to Medicaid, saying reducing spending on the insurance program would “shred our nation’s social safety net.”
In February, House Republicans passed a budget blueprint that calls for the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees major healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, to find $880 billion in spending cuts.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Wednesday, the organizations, which include patient advocacy group Families USA as well as provider and disability rights groups, called the potential cuts “catastrophic,” noting they could delay access to care and ultimately drive up healthcare costs.
Dive Insight:
Though the budget reconciliation bill passed by the House doesn’t specifically mention Medicaid, it’s likely to be a target. The safety-net program, which along with the Children’s Health Insurance Program covers 80 million Americans, is a large line item under the the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s purview.
Spending under the committee falls far short of the blueprint’s $880 billion goal excluding programs like Medicare and Medicaid, according to an analysis published earlier this month by the Congressional Budget Office.
But Medicaid cuts are a politically dicey proposition, given their unpopularity with voters and hospital reliance on the safety-net program — especially in rural communities with larger numbers of Republican constituents.
Republicans have said lately they’ll look for fraud, waste and abuse in the program. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said Medicaid spending had increased significantly in recent years, and efforts to pare back spending would “strengthen Medicaid for the most vulnerable” during a hearing on Tuesday.
But the more than 300 advocacy groups argue Medicaid is already a “lean program,” and the cuts required under the budget blueprint would hit state budgets hard — pushing them to remove enrollees from the program or slash payments to providers.
“No matter how cuts to Medicaid are framed, the end result would be devastating to American families and communities in every state,” they wrote.
Researchers have also pointed to the potential impact of Medicaid cuts. Funding reductions to the insurance program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food benefits to low-income families, could decrease state gross domestic products and lead to more than 1 million lost jobs next year, according to the Commonwealth Fund.
And if Congress enacts work requirements for Medicaid in states that expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act, more than 5 million adults could lose coverage, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
