Congressional Republicans want to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget to fund President Donald Trump’s agenda. Those cuts could include Medicaid. Tens of thousands of Montanans could lose coverage if that happens.
House Republicans passed a resolution calling for the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion from its budget over the next decade. But the committee couldn’t meet that target without cuts to either Medicare or Medicaid, according to the congressional budget office. Trump has said Medicare won’t be touched, leaving the popular Medicaid program open to cuts.
Liz Wiliams is with KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. She analyzed two possible ideas for cutting federal Medicaid spending. One is a federal spending cap for traditional Medicaid based on a state’s population. The other would cut enhanced federal funding for states’ Medicaid expansion programs.
Both proposals could force states to spend billions to cover the shortfall or shrink their Medicaid programs.
“It’s likely states would face significant challenges to offsetting the loss of these federal funds. We could see as a result enrollment losses and states having to drop their Medicaid expansion population," says Williams.
The cap on traditional Medicaid spending could cost Montana $2 billion more over the next 10 years. A reduction in the Medicaid expansion rate could cost another $3 billion.
Filling any shortfall would have to be voted on by state lawmakers.
Williams estimates about 120,000 Montanans could lose coverage under both hypothetical cuts to meet Trump’s budget request.
