On a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie, the Senate July 1 passed the much-debated budget bill, stripping $930 billion from Medicaid.
The Senate version of the bill — which now goes back to the House for final approval — is the largest cut to healthcare spending in several decades. Approximately 10 million people will lose Medicaid coverage, and an additional 5 million are expected to lose coverage as Affordable Care Act premiums rise and become too expensive for some consumers.
Critics of the bill liken it to a “reverse Robin Hood” — robbing the poor of benefits to provide wealthy people with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over the next 5 years.
“The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits,” said Vance, a day before his tie-breaking vote. “The One Big Beautiful Bill fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass.”
“Everything else — the Congressional Budget Office score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy— is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions,” he wrote on X.
Only three Republican senators voted against the bill. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, who has announced his retirement from Congress, said he was concerned about the cuts to Medicaid, concerns echoed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who also voted against the bill. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said the bill would increase the federal deficit by $270 billion per year. Several other Republican senators expressed their concerns about the cuts to Medicaid, but ultimately voted for the bill.
‘Reversing Generations of Progress’
“Under this legislation — which cuts nearly $1 trillion from essential health programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program — millions of hard-working people will lose healthcare coverage and food assistance under the heavy burden of new punitive governmental red tape,” said Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Besser referred to new work requirements, in which Medicaid and SNAP recipients would have to prove every 6 months that they have worked for at least 80 hours per month. Health advocates believe that many millions, faced with onerous paperwork, will simply drop off of the benefits to which they are entitled.
“By its very design, the bill will make our country sicker, put children at risk of going hungry, and make it harder for families to afford basic necessities — all to further enrich wealthy individuals and corporations,” said Besser. He noted that elderly people and disabled people, along with rural hospitals, would be most heavily impacted.
“It is unfathomable to see policymakers intentionally inflict so much damage on the people they represent,” said Besser.
Harm to Working Families
UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía said the bill would deeply harm working families, including folks who voted Trump into office. “Our families, and especially our children, will pay the price as the bill makes the largest cuts to health and food programs in U.S. history.”
“At a time when working families are scrambling to get by, they will lose critical support, pay more for everyday necessities and see their communities ripped apart as the administration will use the funds to turbocharge its chaotic, malicious and unlawful deportation machine,” said Murguia.
A study released by UnidosUS in May concluded that 45% of America’s children are poised to lose healthcare or food assistance as a result of the bill.
’Senators Should Be Ashamed’
Anthony Wright, executive director of Families US, chided Senators for their yes votes. “Every Senator who voted in support of this big, bad budget bill should be ashamed of both the process and the policy. All Americans should remember this vote with horror about what the Senate is willing to do to our health coverage, our costs, and our care, all to give even bigger tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations,” he said.
“This bill betrays Americans who voted for affordability, not for a budget that would raise health costs in both public and private coverage. This bill betrays the promises made by the President and by Senators to not touch Medicaid or slash away at our health care system and social safety net,” said Wright.
Feature image via Flickr
