Thursday Challenge: Save Medicaid

One more House committee voted to slash Medicaid on Wednesday, continuing the Republican march toward gutting health care for poor people. The justification: saving money on Medicaid spending will pay to continue Trump tax cuts for the very rich. 

Each day this week, I commit to doing one small thing—a phone call, a letter, a comment on a regulation. I’m going to walk through my commitment right here on the blog, which will keep me accountable and might also get a reader or two to join me.

Dan Froomkin points out the importance of moving Republicans: 

“If only four out of the 220 Republican House members were to balk on Medicaid cuts, joining the 213 Democrats (there are two vacancies in the House), the measure would fail.”

The overwhelming majority of people in this country, Republicans as well as Democrats, oppose cuts to Medicaid.

[Data for Progress] “Nationwide, 50% of voters want Congress to increase funding for Medicaid, 38% want funding to be kept as it is, and 8% want to cut funding. 

“We additionally tested voters’ attitudes on funding levels for home and community-based services (HCBS), which would also be under threat with the GOP budget package. Fifty-two percent of voters nationally want to increase funding for HCBS, while 38% want to keep current levels of funding, and only 5% believe funding should be cut.”

In Minnesota, the Data for Progress polling shows NO Congressional District with more than 10 percent support for cutting Medicaid. 

Action steps:

Click here for the phone numbers for Minnesota Congressional representatives, Republicans and Democrats. You can call any of them. 

A few basic facts about Medicaid:

Pick any one or more for your phone call! 

• Medicaid is the nation’s single largest health care insurer, covering approximately 79.3 million people in the United States in 2024. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
•  In 2023, Medicaid covered nearly 4 in 10 children, over 8 in 10 children in poverty, 1 in 6 adults, and almost half of adults in poverty. (Kaiser Family Foundation) 
• Medical Assistance—the Minnesota name for our Medicaid program—covers nearly 1.3 million Minnesotans. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
• Medical Assistance covers 3 out of 10 births in Minnesota. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
• Medical Assistance covers about 41% of the state’s kids—more than half a million children. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
• Minnesota spends more than 60% of Medical Assistance funds on services and support needed for people with disabilities or who are 65 or older. However, this group makes up only 14% of enrollees. About 65% of Minnesota Medicaid enrollees are families and kids. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
• Medicaid — not Medicare — is the primary source of coverage for people who need long-term care services, like nursing homes, in the state. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
• Minnesotans who live in Greater Minnesota are more likely to get their health insurance through Medicaid than those in the metro area. Medicaid is an essential financial support for hospitals and health care in rural Minnesota. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
• Nearly two-thirds of adults under age 65 who ware on Medicaid are also working. Another 29 percent are not working due to illness or disability (10%), school attendance (7%) or caregiving responsibilities (12%). Only eight percent are not working due to retirement, inability to find work, or another reason. (Minnesota Department of Human Services)
• Imposing work requirements on that eight percent would add huge administrative costs and large administrative systems to verify job searches, work records, etc.  Many people would be dropped from Medicaid (and so would their children) because of failure to file the right paperwork or because of the system’s failure to process that paperwork.