As lawmakers continue to advance a bill that would eliminate upwards of $700 billion in Medicaid funding, groups across the health spectrum are sounding the alarm on patients’ loss of coverage and access to care. This overwhelming concern is reinforced by the majority of voters – including more than half of Trump voters – who oppose Congressional proposals to cut Medicaid.
The message is loud and clear: imposing bureaucratic red tape and shifting costs to states threaten to destabilize our health care system and will harm patients, providers and access to care nationwide. The most vulnerable populations will be negatively impacted by these cuts, including seniors, pregnant women, children and people of all ages with disabilities, serious mental health conditions, cancer and other chronic conditions.
- AARP (5/13/25): “Millions of Americans age 50 and older rely on Medicaid to get and stay healthy, remain in their homes and communities, and afford critical services that Medicare does not cover. While we recognize and appreciate that the Committee rejected proposals that would have fundamentally changed Medicaid’s funding structure, we remain deeply concerned that millions of older Americans will lose Medicaid coverage under the bill before the Committee.”
- Alliance for Aging Research (5/12/25): “Across every corner of our nation in recent weeks, a strong majority of Americans have voiced significant opposition to deep Medicaid cuts. Let there be no doubt that as the Energy and Commerce Committee proceeds to mark up, the combined impact of proposed legislation would mean deep benefit losses to millions of Medicaid beneficiaries, greater strains on state budgets which will only increase with time, and unnecessary burden on health care providers and the people they serve in communities both large and small.”
- American Academy of Pediatrics (5/12/25): “Medicaid is the backbone of the health care system for children, and cuts to the program will have consequences for all children in our communities, not only those enrolled in the program…Cuts to all of these programs, including shifting costs to states, is short-sighted. Doing so will make it even harder for pediatricians to do their jobs and prevent families from accessing the services they need.”
- American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (5/12/25): “No matter how it’s packaged, cuts are cuts and cuts have consequences. The so-called savings from Medicaid in this proposal will be paid for on the backs of individuals who often have no other option for affordable health insurance, including those with cancer. It is unconscionable to force states to cut health coverage for cancer screenings, treatment and access to innovative cancer therapies or nursing home care.”
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (5/13/25): “ACOG is particularly concerned about the impact on our pregnant patients, some of whom will lose Medicaid coverage because the policies added together will financially stress states…We urge Congress not to cast our patients aside. The provisions in this bill will erase advances in health care access and outcomes and could set women’s health back decades.”
- American Hospital Association (5/12/25): “These proposed cuts will not make the Medicaid program work better for the 72 million Americans who rely on it. Instead, it will lead to millions of hardworking Americans losing access to health care and many of our nation’s hospitals struggling to maintain services and stay open for their communities. We urge Congress to reject efforts to dismantle this vital program.”
- American Lung Association (5/12/25): “The ripple effects of this legislation would be felt across the nation: clinics and rural hospitals could close; people who currently get their healthcare through their employer and lose their job would be locked out of getting Medicaid and lose their safety net; and healthcare would cost more for everyone.”
- America’s Essential Hospitals (5/12/25): “Slashing Medicaid funding is not just a numbers game — it is an action that will rip health care access from communities across America, disproportionately harming low-income individuals, rural populations, and hardworking Americans who rely on Medicaid for access to lifesaving care…We urge lawmakers to reconsider this dangerous path.”
- Association of American Medical Colleges (5/12/25): “The AAMC continues to urge the committee to preserve our health care infrastructure and protect patients’ ability to obtain care throughout the country by rejecting harmful proposals that would undermine the health care safety-net…If enacted, these policies would place profound financial pressure on safety-net providers, limiting their ability to care for the Medicaid population.”
- Association for Community Affiliated Plans (5/15/25): “Congress is one step closer to stripping critical health coverage from millions of hardworking Americans and their families. The proposed changes to Medicaid, including enhanced eligibility checks, do little more than create trap doors that eligible individuals can fall through in their efforts to live or thrive.”
- Children’s Hospital Association (5/12/25): “Children’s hospitals rely heavily on Medicaid reimbursement to provide high-quality care, and without a strong Medicaid program, children’s hospitals will be forced to make tough decisions. Families often can’t just go to their closest general hospital – children aren’t little adults, and their health care needs aren’t the same as their parents’.”
- Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (5/13/25): “Access to consistent care and specialized therapies is essential for those living with a progressive disease. Gaps in Medicaid coverage — even for as little as one month — may put people with CF at risk of declining health, including increased lung exacerbations, irreversible lung damage, and hospitalizations…The Foundation believes that protecting and preserving Medicaid is critical to our mission of ensuring all people with CF have the opportunity to lead long, healthy lives.”
- Disability and Aging Collaborative and Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities (5/20/25): “Our concerns with these policies have grown as we consider their combined impact on adults, infants, children and students with disabilities, older adults, caregivers and their families. As we’ve repeatedly emphasized, there is no way to carve out people with disabilities and older adults from the harm of these cuts.”
- Federation of American Hospitals (5/14/25): “The House Energy and Commerce Committee just advanced the largest Medicaid cuts in history – the blast radius of which will be felt far beyond those who depend on Medicaid for care. These cuts destabilize the state-federal Medicaid partnership, hamstring states’ abilities to fund Medicaid, and force states to choose between raising taxes or constraining the health services that hardworking Americans expect and deserve.”
- Georgetown Center for Children and Families (5/13/25): “Republican leaders have repeatedly denied that Medicaid would be cut in this bill or that people will be hurt and have their benefits taken away. Those claims have now demonstrably been proven to be false. In fact, Medicaid faces the largest cut in its history, and Medicaid savings are achieved by millions of people losing their Medicaid coverage.”
- Mental Health America (5/13/25): “MHA strongly opposes the recent Medicaid proposals of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Budget Reconciliation bill, warning it will add unnecessary red tape and more out-of-pocket costs that hurt children and people struggling with mental health and addiction.”
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (5/12/25): “Unfortunately, nothing in these proposals would help address the mental health crisis facing our country…These proposals are alarming and will hurt too many Americans. Congress must swiftly reject these changes and keep Americans connected to the mental health care they need and deserve.”
- National Association of Community Health Centers (5/12/25): “The newly released reconciliation bill from the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce proposes changes to Medicaid that would result in millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid for health coverage losing access to healthcare, including Community Health Center (CHC) patients…We urge the Energy & Commerce Committee to amend the bill to protect Medicaid access for patients.”
- National Rural Health Association (5/12/25): “Legislation from the House Energy and Commerce Committee proposes changes to Medicaid that will result in massive coverage losses and will further stifle access to care for all rural patients by closing rural facilities and ending health care coverage for rural residents nationwide…Rural areas will suffer the most if these policies are enacted.”
- National Service Office of Nurse-Family Partnership & Child First (5/14/25): “A cut of this magnitude represents a massive cost-shift to states. And when states are forced to fill a $700 billion gap, health care and other essential service—even for populations like pregnant women and children—will inevitably suffer.”
- Small Business Majority (5/12/25): “A U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce proposal that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid threatens health insurance coverage for small business owners and their employees…Given the clear link between access to health insurance and the American Dream, lawmakers should be looking for ways to help make insurance more affordable rather than less accessible for small businesses.”
- Zero to Three (5/12/25): “These cuts would mean skipped doctor visits, missed developmental screenings and fewer mental health services for parents and children. They will drown people in red tape and strip coverage from those who qualify…Instead of cutting services, now is the time for Congress to secure our nation’s future by investing in the health care, nutrition, child care and more that babies and their caregivers need.”
- Medical organizations representing physicians (5/13/25): “We write today to express our deep concerns with the proposed changes to the Medicaid program currently being considered by Congress. Patient care would be threatened by proposals such as altering the federal financing structure of the Medicaid program, limiting eligibility, shifting costs to states, and increasing the administrative complexity of the program.”
- American Lung Association and other leading patient and consumer organizations (5/13/25): Despite repeated public assertions that people who rely on Medicaid would not be harmed as a result of these policy proposals, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has confirmed our worst fears: the math does not work without steep cuts to Medicaid. The policies put forward by the Energy and Commerce Committee would terminate health coverage for at least 13.7 million people, including low-income working adults, Medicare beneficiaries, children, people with disabilities, and patients with complex health conditions.”
The Modern Medicaid Alliance, its partners and the broader health care community continue to call on Congress to remove the devastating cuts to Medicaid from proposed legislation.
For more information on Medicaid’s vital role, visit https://modernmedicaid.org.