Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, jeopardizing health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program.

Millions more Americans signed up for taxpayer-funded health care coverage like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace during the Biden administration, a shift lauded by Democrats as a success.

But Republicans, who are looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrative tax cuts to corporations and wealthier Americans, now see a big target ripe for trimming. The $880 billion Medicaid program is financed mostly by federal taxpayers, who pick up as much as 80% of the tab in some states. And states, too, have said they’re having trouble financing years of growth and sicker patients who enrolled in Medicaid.

To whittle down the budget, the GOP-controlled Congress is eyeing work requirements for Medicaid. It’s also considering paying a shrunken, fixed rate to states. All told, over the next decade, Republican lawmakers could try to siphon billions of dollars from the nearly-free health care coverage offered to the poorest Americans.

  • ShepherdPie
    3·
    4 days ago

    I think of this argument too when I hear people talk about how “the homeless and/or illegal immigrants are siphoning up all our money!” The guy living in a tent on the sidewalk or the field worker sleeping on a bedroom floor with 15 other guys aren’t where all of our money is going. That should be fairly obvious.