Study: 20 Million People Could Lose Medicaid Coverage Under GOP Bill
Interview by Amy Goodman & Juan González (DemocracyNow!)
With guest Sharon Parrott
February 19, 2025
A new study projects as many as 20 million people could lose Medicaid coverage under a Republican congressional bill to cut the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion match rate. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found the bill includes tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses, paired with cuts on the programs that support low-income Americans. “There is a direct link between their desire to extend very expensive tax cuts for very wealthy people and the cuts they are putting on the table that will take health coverage and food assistance away from people that struggle to afford the basics,” says Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
In health news, a new study is projecting as many as 20 million people could lose Medicaid coverage under a Republican congressional bill to cut the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion match rate. Republicans are also pushing for work requirements for Medicaid recipients. The American Hospital Association has harshly criticized proposals to cut funding for Medicaid, saying, “Medicaid provides health care to many of our most vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, children, the elderly, disabled and many of our working class,” unquote.
We’re joined now by Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. She formerly worked at the Department of Health and Human Services and OMB, the Office of Management and Budget.
Sharon, if you can start off by talking about the significance of this congressional bill? I think what’s missing in all these national discussions is the true effect on people and how many people, what Medicaid — who it’s for.
SHARON PARROTT: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Thank you so much for having me this morning.
There are 72 million people in the United States that get health coverage through Medicaid. And there are many proposals moving through Congress that would take coverage away from potentially millions of people, leaving them without coverage.
And I want to drill down for just a moment on what it means to be without health coverage. When Medicaid is taken away, what does that mean? It means a parent who can’t get cancer treatment. It means a young adult, just starting out, who can’t get insulin to control their diabetes, just absolutely essential for them to be able to work and move up the economic ladder. It means older adults and people with disabilities losing the care they get in their homes so that they don’t have to move into nursing homes and institutions. It means workers who can’t get access to mental health treatment.
Medicaid provides lifesaving care and access to coverage that is both primary care and acute care. It helps people control chronic diseases, and it helps them thrive. And so, when you hear all the numbers and the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being proposed to be cut, the tens of millions of people that could lose coverage, it’s important to remember what that means to an individual and to their family.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you about the impact, the potential impact, on Medicare, as well, because Republicans are more and more interested in shifting more retired people into Medicare Advantage rather than the regular Medicare system, which is, in essence, privatizing much of Medicare.
SHARON PARROTT: Yeah, we’ve seen a real shift over the last several decades in people moving from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage. And there are real issues emerging with Medicare Advantage, including that it is more costly for the federal government than traditional Medicare. And unfortunately, people often have healthcare access issues within Medicare Advantage.
But I think what we’re going to see this year is a more targeted approach, really targeting cuts in Medicaid, which is our healthcare coverage system for people with low and moderate incomes. And as you said at the beginning, it is kids, it is adults, it is parents, it is workers, it is seniors, and it is people with disabilities. Medicaid is an important linchpin in our health coverage system, covering, again, 72 million people, including 20 million of whom are now getting coverage because of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, very much in the crosshairs for some Republican members of Congress.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And most people don’t realize that a lot of the spending cuts are basically as a result of the tax cuts initiated during the first Trump administration that are about to expire. And so, Congress — and, of course, most of that went to the wealthiest Americans. Could you talk about that, this expiration of these cuts?
SHARON PARROTT: Absolutely. So, in 2017, massive tax cuts were enacted. Those tax cuts were very expensive, and they were highly skewed towards…
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