Take Action Now: House Committee Set to Consider Billions in Cuts to Medicaid

Quick Read

• Next week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will markup its part of the Republican reconciliation bill that proposes to cut Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars. These massive cuts put children and adults with disabilities and older adults at risk of losing coverage for critical home and community-based services (HCBS). If this happens, the ability of family and kinship caregivers to continue to support them at home and the community will be severely jeopardized.
• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyzed five policy options that Republicans may introduce, and they all lead to massive coverage losses.
• Action Needed: Call and email your Senators and Representatives TODAY! Use the sample letter/email/sample social media posts (see below) and urge Congress to push back against these misguided and harmful cuts. 

House Energy and Commerce Committee Set to Markup Reconciliation Bill Containing Massive Medicaid Cuts

Next week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to markup its portion of the Republican reconciliation bill, which is anticipated to include hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid. The markup was delayed a week to give the Committee more time to consider how to save $880 billion from the programs under its jurisdiction, which includes Medicaid. This week, the Committee and Speaker Mike Johnson have been trying to sway a wary President Trump to endorse the proposed Medicaid cuts. The reconciliation bill would likely cut a total of $1.7 trillion in federal spending altogether.

The future of the reconciliation bill remains uncertain, as House Republican leaders are facing strong opposition from Democrats, an opposing budget proposal from Senate Republicans and a razor-thin Republican majority in the House. Senate Republicans have not yet agreed to the House’s plan, instead passing their own budget resolution in March that sets a much lower floor for spending cuts because they do not offset the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts which raises the national debt. However, Senate leadership has indicated it will try to align with the House’s plan.

Disagreements within the House Republican caucus could also sink the bill, with some moderates indicating they will not support cuts to Medicaid over $500 billion, while conversely some “fiscal hawks” say the bill does not do enough to reduce the federal deficit and want even larger cuts. With a slim majority in play, Republican leadership can only afford to lose a few votes. Speaker Mike Johnson wants to take the bill to a vote by Memorial Day, but with delays and a divided caucus, it is becoming increasingly likely the House won’t consider the bill until July.

But we still need advocates to weigh in now! It is imperative to help Members of Congress understand the detrimental impacts of Medicaid cuts on the populations you serve—they need to know how these cuts could leave older adults and people with disabilities, and their family caregivers, without the supports and services they need to remain living in the community. With only days remaining until the markup in the Energy and Commerce Committee, we need you to take action now to prevent cuts to Medicaid HCBS!

TAKE ACTION

STEP 1: Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 to reach your Senators and Representatives and urge them to oppose any cuts to Medicaid! If you prefer to send an email, feel free to use this template and be sure to customize it to your agency/state. You can send an email via your Representative’s or Senator’s website contact pages. Find websites and contact information on the House Directory and Senate Directory.

STEP 2: Engage your network. Urge your Coalition members, the family caregivers you serve, advisory board members and other important partners to send their own emails to their Senators and Representatives. Please do all you can to amplify the message and engage others who understand the value of Medicaid HCBS to family caregivers and the older adults and people with disabilities they care for in your community and state. Forward this Advocacy Alert to your networks or edit it to be best received by your network members.

STEP 3: Share on social media. Beyond engaging your Senators and Representatives directly, everyone needs to know how important Medicaid HCBS is to the health and well-being of millions of family caregivers and those they care for. Draw more attention to this critical issue by posting on social media! See below for sample language you can adapt into social media posts. If posting on X, please ensure your message is within the platform’s 280-character limit by shortening the sample post as needed.

• Americans who rely on Medicaid for health care and long-term care could face reduced access to critical services under the proposed Republican reconciliation bill. Medicaid is a lifeline for the millions of family caregivers who care for children and adults with disabilities and older adults. They rely on Medicaid for supports such as respite care and adult day services to help alleviate caregiving strain and allow loved ones to live at home and in the community. Please contact your lawmakers today to protect Medicaid HCBS! [LINK to National Respite Coalition Alert or your agency’s alert]
• Act NOW! Individuals with disabilities and older adults are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage and access to critical HCBS services, such as respite care and adult day services, due to major Medicaid cuts in the proposed Republican reconciliation bill. Please educate your lawmakers on how critical Medicaid HCBS is to the health and well-being of family caregivers and the people they care for. [LINK to NRC Alert or your agency’s alert]

(adapted from USAging with permission)