The compromise will not change the share of the federal government contributes to Medicaid in each state.
House Republicans revealed the Medicaid proposal on May 11th. Medicaid is trying to balance spending profits with the narrow majority of the GOP’s medium moderates.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is bidding to fund his agenda by uniting his thin majority on one of the most explosive issues of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”
But Democrats criticized the bill, saying it amounted to millions of Americans losing their healthcare.
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The biggest changes are the stricter work requirements and more frequent checks to ensure that Medicaid recipients remain eligible.
However, some of the biggest cost-saving measures required by spending the Hawks have been excluded from the proposal.
The compromise will not change the share that the federal government is contributing to Medicaid in each state. Known as a reduction in the federal health assistance rate (FMAP), measures that may have reduced the costs of the program and appealed to conservatives will not increase per capita spending.
However, these measures would have alienated moderates.
“The change in FMAP… will have a devastating impact on New York, and I’m not doing that,” Rep. Mike Lawler (RN.Y.) told the Epoch Times.
Both the House and Senate are working to draft a version of the settlement bill aimed at implementing Trump’s agenda. Both chambers line up widely with key priorities: funding border security, energy and defense, expanding tax cuts in 2017, and reducing federal spending.
However, the amount will vary depending on the legal version of each chamber.
The House is seeking to cut spending at least $1.5 trillion as part of the bill, but conservatives like Rep. Thomas Massey (R-KY.), House Budget Committee Joe Day Arlington (R-Texas) and members of the House Freedom Caucus are calling for even more sharp cuts in the $2 trillion range.
The burden of finding much of that amount falls on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which includes domains such as Medicaid.
In a budget blueprint approved by both chambers earlier this year, the House Energy and Commerce committee was ordered to find a spending cut of at least $880 billion. An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows that such high cuts would require a reduction in Medicaid spending.
Democrats quickly denounced the package for the panel’s instructions, saying Republicans were trying to effectively cut down on popular qualification programs.
Republican leaders have consistently stated that spending cuts on Medicaid is only concerned with eradicating waste, fraud and abuse.
House Energy and Commerce Committee laws seek to strengthen eligibility requirements and delay President Joe Biden’s administration’s rules. It is trying to block federal funds for Medicaid recipients whose immigration or citizenship status has not been confirmed, and cut federal Medicaid payments to states that provide compensation for illegal immigrants.
The proposal also seeks to curb funding allocated to clean energy products under federal energy projects that are unrelated to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
