Trump’s Medicaid Cuts, If Enacted, Will Affect You

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Trump’s Medicaid Cuts, If Enacted, Will Affect You
By Arthur L. Kellermann, Contributor. I’m an ER doc, public health researcher and patient advocate.

Feb 24, 2025, 08:00am EST

Rural Hospitals Save Lives
During his first month back in the White House, President Trump issued a stream of executive orders that upended longstanding policies and practices of the U.S. government, including the size and scope of the federal workforce, trade policy, international relations and public health. He’s not done yet.

To secure his top legislative priorities, mainly big tax cuts, he needs Congressional budget hawks on board. That’s why he backtracked his promise to protect Medicaid and instead endorsed the House Republicans’ budget plan. If Trump’s Medicaid cuts happen, healthcare costs will rise and access to care will decline for everyone — including you.

How Medicaid Became The Target
During the campaign, Trump declared his intention to make his previous tax cuts permanent and add several more. Although critics have pointed out that his 2017 tax cuts were skewed to the rich, failed to deliver their promised economic benefits and sharply increased our nation’s debt, Trump is unconcerned. When the House Freedom Caucus announced that any reductions in revenue be matched by equally large decreases in spending, their position was incorporated into the House Republicans’ budget plan. Few federal programs are big enough to satisfy this requirement.

Social Security and Medicare, although costly, are effectively off-limits due to their popularity with seniors. That makes Medicaid, the largest single source of funding for medical and health-related services to 72 million low-income and medically disabled Americans, a prime target. Sure enough, the House Republican budget plan directs the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to find $880 billion in offsetting spending cuts over the next 10 years. On Feb. 19, Trump publicly endorsed the plan.

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