By Congressman Tom Cole
Throughout the past five months of the Trump Administration, Democrats and Far-Left media outlets have engaged in dishonest fearmongering, misrepresenting the Republican Reconciliation bill and spreading the untrue claim that Republicans are gutting Medicaid. But the American people deserve to know the truth – and the truth is that Republicans are working to strengthen Medicaid for those who need it.
We know that Medicaid is an essential program that enriches the lives of so many Americans. It was designed to serve vulnerable families and individuals, including children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities. Yet, in recent years, Medicaid has been expanded too much, risking the complete collapse of the program and therefore threatening the healthcare access of the people this program is truly intended to help.
The previous administration only exacerbated this problem. President Biden removed the fraud protections that had been put in place on Medicaid enrollment, making it difficult for states to remove ineligible people from the program and allowing able-bodied adults with the capability to work to take resources from those who the program was designed to serve. In fact, Medicaid currently spends seven times more on capable yet unemployed adults with no dependents than it does on eligible vulnerable populations who can’t work. These Biden Administration Medicaid expansions not only undermine the true purpose of the program but also will cost $172 billion over the next ten years.
So, now, as a result of the extreme actions of the Left that have endangered healthcare access for those who are truly eligible, Republicans are having to reverse the damage.
However, I want to be very clear – we are not cutting Medicaid. In fact, saving Medicaid is what my colleagues and I are trying to do.
The Republican Reconciliation bill will strengthen, secure, and sustain Medicaid. It requires citizenship verification and more frequent eligibility checks in order to ensure illegal immigrants and ineligible beneficiaries are not able to receive Medicaid. The bill establishes a work requirement for able-bodied adults with no dependents or elderly parents in their care, just like other programs like SNAP and TANF require, and prohibits Medicaid from funding “gender reassignment” surgery for children.
Put simply: this bill is common sense, as it just reestablishes Medicaid as a program that provides vital healthcare to the most vulnerable Americans and stops the subsidization of competent adults who are just choosing to not work. So, in conclusion, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and protect the life-saving services that vulnerable Americans rely on.
