It's time to fight to save Medicaid again

 

January 27, 2025 | by Amber Smock

It’s time to fight again to protect Medicaid. Congress wants to attack Medicaid to both reduce government spending and pay for tax cuts. As we know, millions of people with disabilities rely on Medicaid for our lives, so this is absolutely unacceptable. Here’s a quick link to contact your members of Congress to oppose cuts to Medicaid. Read on to learn more about why cutting Medicaid will only result in a healthcare crisis. 

What are some reasons why cuts or changes to Medicaid are bad for states? 

  • Medicaid accounts for over half of federal funding for states 
  • Cuts to Medicaid will result in pressure on other state budget items like K-12 education 
  • It will reduce provider networks 
  • If certain states (like Illinois) do not receive enough funding for their Medicaid expansion, it will trigger an end to Medicaid expansion enrollment 

If you’re interested in reading about how proposed cuts to Medicaid translate from dollars to people: check out this commentary piece: “Yardstick for Medicaid Budget Targets: What Potential Numbers Mean.” 

Know your status and protect yourself: It’s simpler than you think to get kicked off Medicaid. Please check out our action alert from last week to learn how to check your status and make sure your case is in order. If you have support from your state’s home and community based services programs and you have a waiver, do you have Medicaid? YES. The fight over Medicaid cuts affects YOU. 

Maybe you’re a video viewer rather than a reader. If you learn better from videos, please visit this page from the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, which has several good videos explaining the importance of Medicaid. 

What exactly is Congress thinking about doing to Medicaid? As of the end of last week, the new House Budget Committee leadership had a 50-page list of POSSIBLE proposed cuts to Medicaid.  This list is a reduced version of this article by Edwin Park, who is a Research Professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families. For further detail on the below list, visit Professor Park’s original article.

  • Converting Medicaid to a per capita cap.  
  • Eliminating the enhanced matching rate for the Medicaid expansion.   
  • Restricting state use of provider taxes to finance state Medicaid costs.   
  • Lowering the minimum Medicaid matching rate.   
  • Eliminating the enhanced matching rate for certain Medicaid administrative costs.  
  • Lowering the Medicaid matching rate for the District of Columbia.   
  • Eliminating the additional incentive for states to take up the Medicaid expansion.  
  • Reducing the matching rate for states covering undocumented immigrants with their own funds.  
  • Changing the formula used to calculate Medicaid matching rates.  
  • Imposing onerous Medicaid work reporting requirements.   
  • Eliminating Medicaid and CHIP eligibility for certain legal immigrants. 
  • Reducing Medicaid and CHIP eligibility by modifying how the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is annually adjusted.     
  • Modifying “public charge” for certain immigrants (those seeking admission to the United States or adjustment in status to legal permanent residency) by going back to a damaging 2019 proposal. 
  • Rescinding the following Medicaid rules that were approved under the Biden administration: a new rule related to eligibility and enrollment, a new rule related to access to care, a new rule related to managed care, and a new rule related to nursing home staffing.    

Please contact your members of Congress and ask them to OPPOSE Medicaid cuts. You can use this action link from Access Living to send a quick email, but we urge you to PERSONALIZE your message! Please share this important information with your friends and family. Let’s stay united in action!