House GOP backing off some Medicaid cuts as report shows millions of
people would lose health care
[May 08, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO and AMANDA SEITZ
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans appear to be backing off some, but
not all, of the steep reductions to the Medicaid program as part of
their big tax breaks bill, as they run into resistance from more
centrist GOP lawmakers opposed to ending nearly-free health care
coverage for their constituents back home.
This is as a new report out Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional
Budget Office estimated that millions of Americans would lose Medicaid
coverage under the various proposals being circulated by Republicans as
cost-saving measures. House Republicans are scrounging to come up with
as much as $1.5 trillion in cuts across federal government health, food
stamp and other programs, to offset the revenue lost for some $4.5
trillion in tax breaks.
“Under each of those options, Medicaid enrollment would decrease and the
number of people without health insurance would increase,” the CBO
report said.
The findings touched off fresh uncertainty over House Speaker Mike
Johnson's ability to pass what President Donald Trump calls his “big,
beautiful bill” by a self-made Memorial Day deadline.
Lawmakers are increasingly uneasy, particularly amid growing economic
anxiety over Trump’s own policies, including the trade war that is
sparking risks of higher prices, empty shelves and job losses in
communities nationwide. Central to the package is the GOP priority of
extending tax breaks, first enacted in 2017, that are expiring later
this year. But they want to impose program cuts elsewhere to help pay
for them and limit the continued climb in the nation's debt and
deficits.
Johnson has been huddling privately all week in the speaker's office at
the Capitol with groups of Republicans, particularly the more moderate
GOP lawmakers in some of the most contested seats in the nation, who are
warning off steep cuts that would slash through their districts.
Democrats, who had requested the CBO report, pounced on the findings.
"This non-partisan Congressional Budget Office analysis confirms what
we’ve been saying all along: Republicans’ Medicaid proposals result in
millions of people losing their health care,” said Rep. Frank Pallone,
D-N.J., who sought the review with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
House Republican lawmakers exiting a meeting late Tuesday evening
indicated that Johnson and the GOP leadership were walking away from
some of the most debated Medicaid changes to the federal matching fund
rates provided to the states.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news
conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
 Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said
those Medicaid changes “are dead.”
Republican Rep. Nick LaLota of New York, reminded that Trump himself
has said he would oppose Medicaid cuts. Instead, he said the growing
consensus within the Republican ranks is to focus the Medicaid cuts
on other provisions.
Among the other ideas, LaLota said, are imposing work requirements
for those receiving Medicaid coverage, requiring recipients to
verify their eligibility twice a year instead of just once and
ensuring no immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal standing
are receiving aid.
But the more conservative Republicans, including members of the
House Freedom Caucus, are insisting on steeper cuts as they fight to
prevent skyrocketing deficits from the tax breaks.
Medicaid is a joint program run by states and the federal
government, covering 71 million adults.
Republicans are considering a menu of options to cut federal
spending on the program, including reducing the share that the
federal government pays for enrollees health care — in some cases it
is as much as 90%.
They are also considering and setting a cap on how much the federal
government spends on each person enrolled in Medicaid, though that
idea also appears to be losing support among lawmakers.
While those changes would bring in billions of dollars in cost
savings, they would also result in roughly 10 million people losing
Medicaid coverage, the CBO said.
They appear to be off the table.
But other proposed Medicaid changes are still in the mix for
Republicans, including imposing new limits on a state's tax on
health care providers that generate larger payments from the federal
government. That would bring in billions in savings, but could also
result in some 8 million people losing coverage, the report said.
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