Can House Republicans reduce $ 880 billion without the resistance of Medicaid? | Health news

The prospects for deep cuts for MedicaidThe government program of the United States for providing health care for people with low incomes has become a flash in Congress as leaders of both sides accuse their lying colleagues.

Hakeem JeffriesThe leader of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, said February 27 that a Republican budgetary measure “will launch the biggest decrease in Medicaid in American history” and the Republicans hide the consequences.

“Republicans lie to the American people about Medicaid,” Jeffries said. “I can’t say that in any other way. Republicans lie. Prove me wrong. “

Republicans said Democrats distort the Republican budget. Congressman Steve Scalise said: “The word Medicaid is not in this account either.”

Mike Johnson’s home speaker said to CNN that the Republicans did not want to cut Medicaid “and the Democrats lied about it.”

Republicans are looking for a huge budget savings to fulfill their goal to fully expand President Donald Trump 2017 tax reduction. This is a separate procedure from the need of Congress to bring a continuous solution for the Government to run until Friday or face the exclusion of the Federal Government.

Here’s what we know so far about the potential cuts of Medicaid.

House Republican budget plan is looking for $ 880 billion in cuts

Medicaid serves about five Americans. The health care program is paid by the Federal Government and partly the state. Louisiana, home of Johnson and Scalise, has one of the highest state stakes of Medicaid.

The Republican Budget Plan adopted on February 25 opens the door to reduce Medicaid even though it does not appoint the program.

The plan directs the Energy and House Committee to find ways to reduce the deficit by at least $ 880 billion in the next decade.

The Committee is competent for Medicaid, Health care and health insurance program for children (chip) with many smaller programs. Chip offers cheap health coverage of children in families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

Republicans excluded a decrease in Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly, who reduced their political danger. Medicare is about 15 percent of the federal budget and Medicaid about 8.6 percent.

When Medicare is singled out, Medicaid makes up 93 percent of the funds in accordance with the competent committee, the non -partisan Congress budget office found in analysis on March 5. This means that the committee is impossible to find enough cuts that do not affect Medicaid.

“The fantasy is to mean that the federal help of Medicaid will not be reduced very deep,” said Allison Orris, an expert in Medicaid politics at the Center on Budget and Politics Priorities, left-wing research center.

After Medicaid, the next largest program within the competence of the Committee is a chip. The legislators do not seem to plan to delete the chip, but even if they are, they would only be “a fraction of the times there,” said Joan Alker, Medicaid expert and Chip at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

If Medicare’s cuts are outside the table, the only way to achieve savings of $ 880 billion is through a major decrease in Medicaid, said Larry Levitt, Executive Vice President of Health Policy in KFF, organization of health policy.

Andy Schneider, a professor at Georgetown who served in the administration of former President Barack Obama as Senior Advisor at Medicare & Medicaid Services centers, said that even if the Committee eliminates all other programs, he could only achieve $ 381 billion in savings – about 43 percent of the target.

“In short, if they don’t want to cut Medicaid [or CHIP]And they don’t want to cut Medicare, the goal of reducing $ 880 billion is impossible, “Schneider said.

Cutting of $ 880 billion is not a finished job. House Republicans managed to pass their budget package, but the Senatic Republicans use a different approach and did not suggest such a significant reduction.

Each completed draft budget should buy Senate Republicans. Senator Josh Hawley is one of the Republicans who spoke against potential reductions. He said of Huffpost: “I wouldn’t make strong cuts Medicaid.”

Numbers are starting points that can lead to negotiations among the least Republicans, said Joe Antos, a health expert at the Conservative American Enterprise Institute. “We are long since the final legislation, so it is not possible to predict how much any program will be reduced,” he said.

“If the account includes extension [Trump 2017] Tax reduction, we are probably a few months away from looking at the real language, “Antos said.

Once the home and the Senate reach a language agreement and the resolution passes both chambers, the committees would work on detailed cuts. To bring such cuts, both chambers should approve a separate account and get Trump’s signature.

Why removal of fraud does not solve the problem

Republican leaders refused concerns about a decrease in Medicaid by talking about another goal: Medicaid fraud.

“I will not touch social security, Medicare, Medicaid. Now we will be overwhelmed by the fraud” Trump He said in an interview with Fox News Channel on Sunday in accordance with the rhetoric of his campaign to protect those programs.

At the same time, Trump praised the resolution of a house that would be very likely: “The resolution of the house implements my full American first agent, all, not just parts of it!” He said in a post on social networks.

Would the removal of fraud solve the problem of Medicaid? Not.

On CNN, Johnson said that cutting fraud, waste and abuse would result in “part of the savings to realize this mission.” He said the government loses $ 50 billion a year in paying Medicaid “only in fraud”.

But Johnson associated “fraud” with “irregular payments”. The Government Office for Liability, a non -partisan investigative part that examines the use of public funds, found about $ 50 billion in irregular payments in Medicaid and the same amount in Medicare 2023.

These irregular payments were made in the wrong amount (overpayment or insufficient payment), they should not have been executed at all, or disappeared or were not sufficient documentation. But that does not mean that there were $ 50 billion in Medicaid fraud, which would include getting something through a deliberate misconception.

The system used to identify irregular payments is not designed to measure fraud, so we do not know which percentage of irregular payments was a loss due to fraud, Schneider said.

In addition, it is a drop in a total of $ 880 billion in the cuts in cuts.