Federal budget will bolster Medicaid for those who need it, stop abuses of those who don’t, House leader says

Medicaid changes will rein in waste, fraud and abuse as the nation undergoes a new “revolution of common sense,” said a Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky) chairs the House Energy & Commerce Committee, one of the congressional panels that will debate a new federal spending plan. Medicaid supporters said the budget reconciliation bill will be disastrous for health care for millions of Americans, but Guthrie countered that it will help, not hurt, access to affordable health care.

“States are struggling to manage rising Medicaid costs, which ballooned under (President Joe) Biden,” Guthrie wrote in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal on May 11. “This is particularly true in Democrat-run states such as California that use federal Medicaid funding to subsidize health insurance for illegal aliens through state insurance programs. This policy puts undue budgetary pressure on Medicaid, thereby endangering the healthcare access of the vulnerable Americans the program was designed to help.”

The Biden administration also imposed burdensome regulations that jeopardize the long-term health of Medicaid, Guthrie said.

“The last president stripped away guardrails against fraud by making it more difficult for states to remove ineligible people from Medicaid enrollment and expanded coverage such that capable but unemployed adults could take resources meant for people in need,” Guthrie said. “In total, these Biden rules will cost $172 billion over the next 10 years if they aren’t reversed — as our bill would do.”

Democrats have unfairly misrepresented the bill as an attack on Medicaid, Guthrie wrote. Instead, the bill will protect Medicaid for children, mothers, people with disabilities and the elderly, the people that the program was designed for, he said.

"When so many Americans who are truly in need rely on Medicaid for life-saving services, Washington can’t afford to undermine the program further by subsidizing capable adults who choose not to work,” Guthrie said. “That’s why our bill would implement sensible work requirements. Every other capable adult works to afford health care. Half of all Americans get insurance through work, seniors on Medicare get coverage because they paid into the trust fund, and veterans earned their care through their service to our country.”

These solutions will stave off “a complete collapse of Medicaid,” Guthrie said.

“All who worked on this bill — from my congressional colleagues to the White House — designed it to renew the American dream for families across the country,” Guthrie said.“What could be more common sense than that?”