RICHMOND, Va. — As federal agencies slash their workforces and budgets, one question looms: What will happen to Medicaid, the health insurance for low-income families and people with disabilities?
The federal government pays just over half of traditional Medicaid and 90% of the expansion under "Obamacare," which Virginia passed in 2018.
The parties have decidedly different views.
Leading Virginia Democrats at the State Capitol and in Washington say the Republican House majority's recent budget resolution, which would cut $880 billion from healthcare and energy over 10 years, would be a disaster for low-income Virginians. Rep. Rob Wittman (VA-01) says not so fast.
"It doesn't even mention the word Medicaid. What the budget resolution does do is it sets targets for us to accrue savings to be able to reduce spending, and we have to do that because of a growing budget deficit and growing debt," Wittman, a Republican, said.
The broad resolution envisions a total of $2 trillion in cuts to finance the extension of President Trump's $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.
"They claim if you look at the budget plan, it doesn't say the words Medicaid, but you cannot get to $880 billion, you cannot get to $2 trillion without cutting Medicaid, as the Congressional Budget Office recently said," Democratic Rep. Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) said. "When you get down to brass tacks in the healthcare sector, at least, there really are only two areas that it could happen in. Isn't that right? Medicare or Medicaid? What would you see as sort of legitimate cuts in that domain? Sure. Well, what we're looking to do is to accrue savings. This really is about looking at waste, fraud, and abuse. How do we make sure that these systems are sustainable? And we do that through savings. I think there are a lot of innovative ways that we can do that."
As state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) points out, any reduction in how much the federal government reimburses states for Medicaid will have a devastating impact on about a third of the 1.8 million Virginians covered by Medicaid.
"This provision stipulates that if federal funding for Medicaid expansion falls below that 90% threshold, the program's expansion will automatically end. As a result, 630,000 Virginians, whose lives, as you've already just heard, have been dramatically improved by the program's expansion, will lose coverage immediately," Hashmi said.
"There's a lot of looks about how we are going to address the number of dollars that come from the federal government and the number of dollars that states put in. I would argue that that's looking at ways to make it more efficient. Virginia's actually done a really good job of making the program more efficient," Wittman said.
Congressional Republican leaders are expected to meet Tuesday to hammer out the details on where the cuts in healthcare will come.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
