The new budget resolution passed by House Republicans is asking many different congressional committees to make deep cuts to their budgets.
One of the committees tasked with cutting spending is the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees spending on Medicare and Medicaid. Democratic Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego gathered with state health leaders for a discussion on what potential cuts could mean for Arizonans.
“We aren’t trying to scare you," Gallego said. "They have passed a budget where the goal is to cut $880 billion dollars.”
The participants, who ranged from representatives for healthcare workers to local community health centers, said any cuts to Medicaid could threaten over 2 million Arizonans who use AHCCCS to get health care.
"AHCCCS is Arizona’s medicaid agency. The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System," Jessica Yanow with the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers said. "Every state can name their Medicaid system what they want, if someone is on AHCCS, they are on Medicaid.”
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The majority of the spending from the Energy and Commerce Committee is on Medicare and Medicaid. President Trump has said he will not consider any cuts to Medicare. Democrats like Senator Gallego argue the only thing left to cut from would be Medicaid.
"That's all that's left," Gallego said. "It's maybe a couple of other small programs, but the only way to get to that number of $880 billion is you have to take a chainsaw to Medicaid."
Roundtable participants say if Medicaid funds are cut, the state likely either has to raise more taxes to keep everyone on AHCCCS, or scale back eligibility, limit what’s covered, or lower reimbursements to health providers, likely leading to some people losing their health insurance.
“Those people that are off health insurance are going to end up in emergency rooms, and it’s going to end up costing taxpayers more because we’re not going to deny people in emergency rooms," Gallego said.
House Republicans say the budget doesn’t specifically mention cutting Medicaid, and they don’t plan on cutting benefits for anyone.
"The President said over and over and over, we're not gonna touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. We've made the same commitment," Majority Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said.
Johnson says they'll be able to cut the required amount of money from the budget by targeting waste, fraud, and abuse from all federal programs.
“If we don't do that, these programs aren't going to remain solvent and so that's a big part of the equation here," Johnson said.
This is not the final budget proposal, and the resolution now is in the hands of the Senate.
