NPR: “GOP governors stay silent amid plans to slash Medicaid spending in their states”
NPR: “GOP governors stay silent amid plans to slash Medicaid spending in their states”
“In contrast to the radio silence from GOP governors, Democratic governors have campaigned against the megabill for weeks.”
A recent report from NPR details how Republican governors have been radio silent in response to Donald Trump’s devastating plan to rip away health care from over 17 million Americans — the largest cut to Medicaid in modern history.
While Democratic governors have “campaigned against the megabill for weeks,” Republican governors “are saying little publicly about what it does to health care — even as they face reductions that will punch multibillion-dollar holes in their states’ budgets.”
In addition to gutting health care for millions, Trump’s extreme budget cuts will also explode the national deficit and are “expected to cost states billions” — all while jacking up prices for working families.
This comes after Republican governors publicly thanked Trump and Senate Republicans for pushing disastrous tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy while putting vital programs like Medicare and Medicaid on the chopping block.
Read more from NPR on how Republican governors are refusing to speak out against the biggest cut to Medicaid in modern history:
- Now, as Congress steamrolls toward passing historic Medicaid cuts of about $1 trillion over 10 years through Trump’s tax and spending legislation, red state governors are saying little publicly about what it does to health care — even as they face reductions that will punch multibillion-dollar holes in their states’ budgets.
- Some of the biggest health cuts in the legislation Trump calls the “One Big Beautiful Bill” are achieved through new policies that would reduce enrollment by imposing more paperwork demands on enrollees, including a requirement that many prove they’re working. Those policies would affect only states that expanded Medicaid to more low-income people under the Affordable Care Act.
- Nineteen of those states are led by Republican governors. Their silence on the bill’s health measures is giving political cover to GOP lawmakers from their states as they seek to cut Medicaid coverage for millions of people who gained it within the last decade.
- KFF Health News contacted all 19 governors for comment on the legislation’s Medicaid cuts. Only six responded.
- In a sign of how the political winds have changed, none of the governors said anything about the legislation’s crackdown on another significant cut, to provider taxes — a tool that nearly all of their states use to help pay their share of Medicaid and gain additional funds from the federal government. That change is expected to cost states billions.
- In contrast to the radio silence from GOP governors, Democratic governors have campaigned against the megabill for weeks.
- Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on the social media platform X that Trump and congressional Republicans were misleading Americans by saying they were cutting only waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid.
- In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul on July 1 charged that Trump’s legislation would devastate hospitals and could lead to more than 34,000 job cuts in her state.
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