Republicans can meet their goal of cutting $880 billion without eliminating any Medicaid benefits, House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie said Tuesday.
The Kentucky Republican, speaking at an event sponsored by The Washington Post, said his committee can hit the cutback goal by rolling back climate initiatives from the Biden administration while finding savings from Medicaid through targeting its unsustainable growth, Politico reported.
"There's an opportunity to preserve benefits, to make sure people have the benefits they've been promised but also get a handle on the large growth … and not take away any benefits," Guthrie said.
The House and Senate are at a standstill on resolving the differences between their budget resolutions and must come to an agreement to move forward on drafting and passing a reconciliation bill that will cut taxes while allowing enhancements on border security and energy policy, and avoiding a filibuster.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, however, the Energy and Commerce Committee's goal for spending cuts would require that major changes be made to Medicaid, the program that provides insurance for millions of low-income Americans.
Guthrie said changes to Medicaid could come from changing the taxes that states charge doctors and hospitals to help pay for Medicaid expenditures.
He added that Republicans can also reduce the federal share in states choosing to expand Medicaid access through the Affordable Care Act and by enacting policies ensuring beneficiaries are eligible for the program.
"If a disabled child goes to the doctor in Kentucky, the federal government pays 72 cents," Guthrie said. "If a healthy adult goes to the doctor, the federal government pays 90 cents. We think that's just unfair and takes away money, because the states are incentivized to take care of this population because it's more money. What we want to do is make it fairer."
States participating in the state-federal Medicaid program could resist the plan, however, as the impact on their budgets could lead them to either pull back on benefits or raise taxes. That could lead to resistance from governors from both parties and congressional Republicans.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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