Senator Gordon Smith Crucial Voice

Medicaid Cuts Will Cause Enormous Hardships

Washington, D.C. - Today, at an event in Portland, Oregon, Senator Gordon Smith solidified his commitment to oppose cuts to the Medicaid program in the budget reconciliation process.

Before the Thanksgiving holiday, the U.S House of Representatives passed its version of the budget reconciliation package, including approximately $9.5 billion in Medicaid cuts. The House budget proposal will cause enormous harm to many millions of low-income seniors, children, and people with disabilities across the country. However, with Senator Smith’s leadership, the U.S. Senate passed a very different budget reconciliation bill, which, unlike the House bill, will not harm Medicaid beneficiaries.

“We are grateful that Senator Smith is holding strong and opposing cuts to the Medicaid program,” said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. “He has been the key member in the budget fight, and we hope that other members of the Senate will follow his lead and protect the most vulnerable Americans from losing their health care safety net.”

The House budget proposal will force low-income people to pay premiums and copayments that they cannot afford. As numerous studies have clearly demonstrated, those costs will be unaffordable for millions of low-income people and will cause them to lose essential health care.

To make matters worse, the House budget proposal will also weaken health care coverage for many people who count on Medicaid as their health safety net.

The Senate bill, on the other hand, achieves savings without hurting beneficiaries by creating efficiencies in the Medicare program and by changing how Medicaid pays for prescription drugs. The Senate bill does not change the Medicaid benefit package or impose any new cost-sharing or premiums.

Both the House and Senate bills are now in conference committee, and Congress is expected to vote on a conference version of the reconciliation bill the week of December 12.

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

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