Bill That Congressman Says Protects Medicaid Doesn’t — And Would Likely Require Cutting It

“On Feb. 25, I voted sure on a finances decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas chopping some spending elsewhere.”

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), in a YouTube video posted March 4, 2025

On Feb. 25, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) voted in favor of a Home finances decision that requires sharp cuts in spending throughout an unlimited array of presidency areas. Medicaid is among the many packages that could possibly be in danger — catapulting it to the middle of the political debate.

President Donald Trump has insisted he gained’t hurt Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Safety advantages, saying his administration is seeking to root out fraud. However Democrats have pushed again, saying the sheer dimension of the proposed cuts will lead to hurt to the Medicaid program, its enrollees, and medical suppliers.

A KFF monitoring ballot has discovered widespread public assist for Medicaid, which suggests efforts to chop this system might face political headwinds. KFF is a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.

LaLota, who represents a part of Lengthy Island, posted a video for his constituents explaining his place: “I voted sure on a finances decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas chopping some spending elsewhere.” As a result of a lot of his video targeted on Medicaid, we did too. We discovered that his assertion on this regard was layered with mischaracterizations and inaccuracies. But, in his video, LaLota advises his constituents to get their data straight from him, saying, “I’ll at all times be trustworthy with you.”

We requested LaLota’s workplace for the knowledge he used to again up his assertion. The finances decision makes no cuts to these packages, he wrote in an announcement emailed by his communications aide Mary O’Hara. “Reasonably, it opens the door to guard Medicaid with commonsense options which guarantee its availability for these People who qualify, together with the removing of illegals from the rolls, work necessities for able-bodied adults, and the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Let’s parse what the decision does say and do, and the modifications it might set off for Medicaid.

Explaining the Fundamentals

Price range resolutions are usually not regulation, however relatively blueprints that information lawmakers on budget-related laws. The Home-passed decision — permitted with 217 Republicans voting for it and 214 Democrats and one Republican in opposition to — is only one a part of the finances course of. The Senate additionally has a say, so modifications are potential.

As written, the decision seeks broad spending reductions throughout a variety of areas overseen by varied committees. It particularly asks the Home Committee on Vitality and Commerce to submit proposals “to cut back the deficit by not lower than $880,000,000,000 [$880 billion] for the interval of fiscal years 2025 by means of 2034.”

It doesn’t say it might shield Medicaid. The phrase Medicaid is nowhere within the doc. It doesn’t prescribe any particular motion on this system, comparable to instituting work necessities for recipients. Lawmakers individually draft laws to make program changes to attain the spending reduce targets.

A bit of background: Medicaid is a state-federal program that gives medical protection to lower-income residents, in addition to funds to nursing houses for caring for seniors and disabled residents. Medicaid and the intently associated Kids’s Well being Insurance coverage Program cowl greater than 79 million folks.

Medicare is the federal program that gives medical health insurance for some disabled folks and most of the people over age 65. Greater than 68 million individuals are enrolled.

The decision directs the committee to draft legislative language that may reduce spending from areas underneath its jurisdiction, which embody Medicaid and about half of Medicare.

Social Safety is especially overseen within the Home by the Committee on Methods and Means. The panel additionally shares jurisdiction over Medicare with Vitality and Commerce.

Coverage specialists and the Congressional Price range Workplace have stated that, after eradicating Medicare from consideration, there’s not sufficient underneath the committee’s jurisdiction to chop $880 billion with out considerably lowering Medicaid spending. (Medicare is usually thought-about a 3rd rail as a result of its beneficiaries are a robust voting bloc.)

Certainly, of the $8.8 trillion in projected spending underneath the committee’s purview for the 10-year interval, Medicaid accounts for $8.2 trillion, or 93%.

“Even when the committee eradicated all of non-Medicare and non-Medicaid spending, they’d nonetheless have to chop Medicaid by nicely over $700 billion,” stated Alice Burns, an affiliate director of KFF’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

Including work necessities — most Medicaid recipients have already got jobs — wouldn’t yield that degree of financial savings and will enhance state prices. Different cuts recommended by Republicans, together with capping federal spending per enrollee, lowering federal matching {dollars}, and eliminating the usage of supplier taxes, which states use to pay for his or her share of Medicaid spending, might drive states to chop spending or discover new income sources.

“Cuts to Medicaid might imply eliminating protection for kids, dad and mom, working adults or those that would possibly want long run care; limiting advantages; or chopping fee charges for well being plans or suppliers. These decisions might come at a time when state income development is slowing, and most states face necessities to go balanced budgets,” in keeping with an evaluation by Robin Rudowitz, vice chairman of the KFF Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The downstream results if the Home-passed finances decision had been enacted could be wide-ranging and considerably alter the protection internet program, stated Edwin Park, a analysis professor on the Middle for Kids and Households at Georgetown College.

He famous rising opposition to such large-scale Medicaid cuts from “beneficiaries and fogeys of youngsters with disabilities, households with dad and mom in nursing houses, and from well being care suppliers.”

“Medicaid cuts are extremely unpopular even amongst Trump voters,” he stated.

Opposition to Medicaid cuts helped kill the 2017 try to repeal the Reasonably priced Care Act in the course of the first Trump administration, famous Joseph Antos, a senior fellow emeritus on the American Enterprise Institute.

Antos thinks the present spending reduce goal is unrealistic and can doubtless not survive the trouble to merge the Home finances blueprint with what the Senate needs to do.

“Finally, the issue is you may’t take that a lot out of Medicaid,” Antos stated.

LaLota’s give attention to immigrants missing authorized standing as a method to cut back federal spending on Medicaid can also be deceptive.

Plenty of states, together with New York, provide protection to kids or adults no matter immigration standing, however they’ll use solely state cash to pay for such packages.

“States can not use federal funding to cowl undocumented immigrants,” Burns stated. So eradicating them “gained’t do something for the deficit discount targets.”

Our Ruling

LaLota stated, “On Feb. 25, I voted sure on a finances decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas chopping some spending elsewhere.”

His assertion is inaccurate and mischaracterizes legal guidelines and the language included within the finances decision, making a misunderstanding of what his vote supported.

The 32-word sentence that directs the Vitality and Commerce Committee to trim $880 billion over 10 years from packages it authorizes doesn’t embody any protections, guardrails, or particular instructions for the panel to observe.

We charge this declare False.

Sources:

Rep. Nick LaLota, constituent video, March 4, 2025.

Clerk, United States Home of Representatives, “Roll Name 50 | Invoice Quantity H. Con. Res. 14,” Feb. 25, 2025.

Newsweek, “Donald Trump Points Social Safety, Medicaid Replace,” March 10, 2025.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, press launch, March 16, 2025.

KFF, February monitoring ballot, March 7, 2025.

Medicaid.gov, “October 2024 Medicaid & CHIP Enrollment Knowledge Highlights,” accessed March 17, 2025.

Congressional Price range Workplace, letter to Reps. Brendan Boyle and Frank Pallone, March 5, 2025.

KFF Fast Takes, “As Governors Meet in D.C., Potential Federal Medicaid Cuts Loom as Massive State Funding Concern,” Feb. 20, 2025.

KFF, “Key Info on Well being Protection of Immigrants, Jan. 15, 2025.

Phone interview with Joseph Antos, senior fellow emeritus, American Enterprise Institute, March 17, 2025.

Phone interview with Edwin Park, analysis professor on the Middle for Kids and Households, Georgetown College, March 17, 2025.

Phone interview with Alice Burns, affiliate director, Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, KFF, March 17, 2025.