Green Bay, WI — Disability rights advocates, caregivers, healthcare providers and grassroots organizers in NE Wisconsin are sounding the alarm in response to House Republicans passing their so-called “One Big Beautiful [Budget] Bill,” which includes more than $790 billion in cuts to Medicaid.
· According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the cuts could result in 8 million Americans losing their Medicaid coverage. Due to a last-minute amendment to the House bill, this number is expected to increase as the final version of is scored.
· The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that in Wisconsin, as many as 83K Medicaid recipients will lose coverage and the state will lose approximately $400 million in federal dollars.
“This is the single largest cut in Medicaid history, and it is not driven by fiscal responsibility or concerns about efficiency or waste. It’s about sabotaging a critical program that allows children, adults and seniors with disabilities to maintain their health and live with dignity and independence,” said a spokesperson for Hands Off Medicaid District 8, a grassroots organization advocating against Medicaid cuts in Northeast Wisconsin.
A Rushed Process, a Silenced Public
The House budget bill moved with alarming speed and little public scrutiny. Legislators in both houses of Congress have avoided face-to-face town halls, refused meeting requests from disability advocates and, in the case of the House, held hearings in the dead of night – all part of a deliberate strategy to avoid pushback from the millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid to survive.
Unnecessary, Ineffective and Cruel
The House bill includes unnecessary and ineffective provisions like work requirements and multiple annual eligibility checks – provisions that do not save money, increase employment or reduce fraud but do make it harder for people to get and stay insured.
Work requirements are unnecessary – a solution in search of a problem.
· Data from Kaiser Family Foundation and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) shows that more than 70% of non-disabled adult Medicaid enrollees already work, and the remainder are caregivers, students or people with chronic or catastrophic health conditions.
Work requirements are expensive and ineffective.
· In Arkansas — the first state to implement Medicaid work requirements — implementing work requirements cost taxpayers $26 million and stripped coverage from 18,000 otherwise eligible people without increasing employment.
· Wisconsin Department of Human Services estimates that implementing work requirements would cost taxpayers $66 million per year to administer and strip healthcare from 52,000 otherwise eligible Wisconsinites.
Increasing eligibility checks — under the false premise of rooting out “fraud” — also increases the state’s administrative costs and forces Medicaid recipients to jump through increasingly more complicated hoops.
· Increased eligibility checks as well as work requirements disproportionately harm seniors, people with disabilities and families who struggle to complete complicated and time-consuming paperwork, who may be alone or ill or who may lack access to technology.
· Increased paperwork and time-sensitive deadlines also mean increased possibility of errors on the part of the state and Medicaid recipients – errors which lead to loss of coverage for those who are otherwise eligible.
It is important to note that it isn’t just Medicaid cuts that concern disability advocates. The House bill is a double whammy in that it contains significant cuts to SNAP – a critical support program for two-thirds of Medicaid recipients.
Exemptions Aren’t Protection — They’re a Trap
Republicans claim vulnerable groups will be “exempt” from harsh new requirements — but in practice, exemptions are a bureaucratic maze. People with cognitive disabilities, mental health conditions or limited supports often fail to access those exemptions due to poor design, confusion and lack of outreach.
“It has become clear that our legislators know very little about how the current Medicaid system works. When they make promises that ‘those who really need Medicaid’ will be exempt from these new provisions, we are understandably skeptical. Those of us who live in the Medicaid world every day know that such exemptions would be complicated, costly to administer and likely to exclude very vulnerable individuals,” said a representative for Hands Off Medicaid District 8.
A Tax Cut in Disguise
Ultimately, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t about fixing Medicaid — it’s about gutting it to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthy. And those tax cuts come at the direct expense of working families, children, people with disabilities and seniors.
· The Congressional Budget Office has determined that the House bill will add at least $3.8 trillion dollars to our deficit and put the largest tax burden on the bottom 4% while enriching the top 4% of Americans.
“Let’s be clear,” said a spokesperson for Hands Off Medicaid District 8. “This bill is about choices. House Republicans have chosen to strip 8 million Medicaid recipients and almost 14 million Americans total of healthcare in order to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires. They may have the power to do that, but we won’t make it easy for them.”
