House GOP passes budget resolution, raising questions about Medicaid cuts

On Tuesday, the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a budget resolution that unlocked the process of reconciliation that they intend to use to implement President Donald Trump’s America First legislative agenda. As part of the process, House GOP leaders have agreed that the House Energy and Commerce Committee will need to come up with $880 billion in spending cuts, over 10 years, a significant amount that Democrats and many Republicans believe can only be achieved through major cuts to Medicaid, which is under the committee’s jurisdiction. Representatives Kevin Hern (R-OK1) and Josh Brecheen (R-OK2) discussed the possibility of cuts to Medicaid.

Question: Is the possibility of cuts to Medicaid a concern to you? Close to a million Oklahomans are on Medicaid — I assume you’ve been getting calls from constituents.

Rep. Hern: "Oh yeah, we’re getting a lot of calls, and I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there. The president has said time and time again, to the public as well as in private — he has never changed his tune on this — he is not going to cut benefits or sign anything that cuts benefits for any person that’s out there that actually needs the benefits delivered to them. Yes, a lot of Oklahomans are on Medicaid, and when you look at that, that’s important. I mean, people are hurting; people need help. And President Donald Trump knows that; he talked to people during his campaign, they know that, and so to say that he’s going to cut benefits for Medicaid is absolutely not true."

Q: What do you think about the potential finding major savings in cuts to Medicaid?

Brecheen: In terms of what the (Republican) conference is going to be willing to (do), it is my great hope we return Medicaid to its original intent … the United States population, since 2012, has grown 6%. Since 2012, however, with Obamacare and Medicaid expansion, the Medicaid population has grown 60%.

Q: Didn’t President Donald Trump say that he doesn’t want Medicare and Medicaid to be touched?

Rep. Brecheen: Look, I read what the president is saying. I think the president is saying the abuse within Medicaid — the waste, fraud and abuse within Medicaid. In my mind, abuse is when people — when that program was designed originally to help a certain subset, and now the largest subset is people who are able to work, and we have turned it into its socialized health care; that’s what we’ve turned Medicaid into, that is where we’re headed as a country, if we’re not willing to right size this … When the largest subgroup now in Medicaid is the able-bodied, it is no longer the blind, it’s no longer the disabled, pregnant or nursing mothers, are we as a nation willing to admit we are embracing socialism? That is not with the American people, if you ask them point-blank, what do you want. And so I consider that, as President Donald Trump has talked about, we’re going to deal with a waste fraud, and abuse.

Brecheen: If the conference decides that that is totally off the table, then they’re going to have to look in different areas to find the savings; that’s why we set this framework up. I just don’t know how you get the numbers to be able to do this if you’re not willing to take a hard look at the areas where we’re moving towards things that are totally counter to what the country was founded on.