Invoice That Congressman Says Protects Medicaid Doesn’t — And Would Probably Require Slicing It

“On Feb. 25, I voted sure on a funds decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas slicing 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 funds decision that requires sharp cuts in spending throughout an unlimited array of presidency areas. Medicaid is among the many applications that may very well 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 trying 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 help for Medicaid, which suggests efforts to chop this system may face political headwinds. KFF is a well being info 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 funds decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas slicing some spending elsewhere.” As a result of a lot of his video centered 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 info straight from him, saying, “I’ll all the time be sincere with you.”

We requested LaLota’s workplace for the data he used to again up his assertion. The funds decision makes no cuts to these applications, he wrote in a press release emailed by his communications aide Mary O’Hara. “Slightly, it opens the door to guard Medicaid with commonsense options which guarantee its availability for these People who qualify, together with the elimination 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 adjustments it may set off for Medicaid.

Explaining the Fundamentals

Price range resolutions aren’t regulation, however relatively blueprints that information lawmakers on budget-related laws. The Home-passed decision — accredited with 217 Republicans voting for it and 214 Democrats and one Republican towards — is only one a part of the funds course of. The Senate additionally has a say, so adjustments 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 Power and Commerce to submit proposals “to scale 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 defend Medicaid. The phrase Medicaid is nowhere within the doc. It doesn’t prescribe any particular motion on this system, akin to instituting work necessities for recipients. Lawmakers individually draft laws to make program changes to attain the spending reduce targets.

Just a little background: Medicaid is a state-federal program that gives medical protection to lower-income residents, in addition to funds to nursing properties for caring for seniors and disabled residents. Medicaid and the carefully associated Youngsters’s Well being Insurance coverage Program cowl greater than 79 million individuals.

Medicare is the federal program that gives medical insurance for some disabled individuals 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 might reduce spending from areas underneath its jurisdiction, which embrace Medicaid and about half of Medicare.

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

Coverage consultants 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 mostly thought of a 3rd rail as a result of its beneficiaries are a strong 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 might nonetheless have to chop Medicaid by properly 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 may improve state prices. Different cuts advised 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, may drive states to chop spending or discover new income sources.

“Cuts to Medicaid may imply eliminating protection for kids, mother and father, working adults or those that would possibly want long run care; limiting advantages; or slicing cost charges for well being plans or suppliers. These selections may come at a time when state income development is slowing, and most states face necessities to cross balanced budgets,” based on an evaluation by Robin Rudowitz, vice chairman of the KFF Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The downstream results if the Home-passed funds decision have been enacted can be wide-ranging and considerably alter the security web program, stated Edwin Park, a analysis professor on the Middle for Youngsters and Households at Georgetown College.

He famous rising opposition to such large-scale Medicaid cuts from “beneficiaries and fogeys of kids with disabilities, households with mother and father in nursing properties, 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 and 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 seemingly not survive the trouble to merge the Home funds 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 technique to cut back federal spending on Medicaid can also be deceptive.

Various states, together with New York, provide protection to kids or adults no matter immigration standing, however they will use solely state cash to pay for such applications.

“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 funds decision that protects Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid whereas slicing some spending elsewhere.”

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

The 32-word sentence that directs the Power and Commerce Committee to trim $880 billion over 10 years from applications it authorizes doesn’t embrace any protections, guardrails, or particular instructions for the panel to comply with.

We fee 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., Attainable Federal Medicaid Cuts Loom as Large State Funding Challenge,” Feb. 20, 2025.

KFF, “Key Details 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 Youngsters and Households, Georgetown College, March 17, 2025.

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