Chip Roy wants Congress to cut Medicaid expansion

WASHINGTON – The San Antonio Express-News reports U.S. Rep. Chip Roy is ramping up pressure on House Republicans to make the larger cuts to Medicaid that many within his party oppose. In a letter to members on Thursday, Roy and 19 other House Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Keith Self and Michael Cloud of Texas, called for pulling back on the expansion of Medicaid benefits to low-income working adults that Congress passed during the Obama administration and that have been adopted in nearly every state. “If the House budget reconciliation package does not include structural Medicaid reform… we will be setting up massive tax increases and benefit cuts in the future,” they wrote. Medicaid expansion covers adults who make up to 138% of the federal poverty rate, or about $21,600 in 2025. States that opt into the program contribute a small percentage of the costs, with the federal government picking up the rest.

Roy’s push to return Medicaid to a program solely for low-income children, pregnant women, seniors and people with disabilities comes as Republicans are searching for ways to slash $1.5 trillion from the federal budget. House GOP members are divided over Medicaid expansion and other benefits for low-income families. U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, the San Antonio Republican whose district includes much of the border, who leads the GOP’s Congressional Hispanic Conference, has warned members that they face political fallout in cutting programs that are “helping hard working Americans.” Gonzales did not respond to a request for comment Friday. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, has already delayed a hearing on the $780 billion in spending cuts they have been directed to come up with by House Leadership. Ending the federal match for Medicaid expansion would save the government $626 billion over the next decade, according to analysis by the health research non-profit KFF. And unless states decided to make up the loss, an estimated 20 millions Americans would lose their healthcare coverage. Texas is one of ten states that chose not to expand Medicaid to low-income Americans. But for Republicans representing states that did expand coverage, cutting federal funding has so far proven a difficult sell.