The #1 issue Democrat candidates are using is a big lie about Medicaid. Don’t fall for it. Millions falsely believe over 100,000 people will die and millions will be hurt by the new changes.
Who’s telling the truth about Medicaid?
Who’s lying?
Who’s paying the bill?
How much IS the bill?
$900 billion and counting.
That’s almost $1 TRILLION per year.
That’s just the federal government’s share.
The government doesn’t have the money!
All the money they spend on other people, they take from YOU… or create more inflation.
Medicaid covers 72 million.
How many of those are American citizens, and how many are not American citizens?
Here are 6 things you need to know about the Republican changes to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill:
- The myth that cuts to federal Medicare funding will kill 100,000 Americans over the next decade.
Natasha Sarin – a Yale law professor – wrote in a Washington Post column on June 9th that at least 100,000 Americans will die “over the course of the next decade” due to the coming Medicaid funding cuts.[1]
Every Democrat and biased media talking head repeated the lies.
Dr. Sarin has Harvard Ph.D. degrees in both economics and law – and she served in the Treasury Department during the Biden administration.
But her assertion about the impact of the Medicaid changes on lives lost is based on three flawed assumptions:
- A misunderstanding of the difference between “statistical lives lost and actual lives lost.
- The estimate that 16 million will lose Medicaid coverage under the new law – more than double what the Congressional Budget Office estimates.
- The assumption that the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 saved 100,000 lives over the next 10 years.
Dr. Sarin’s assertion also doesn’t take into account that even people without any health insurance must – by law – be treated by hospital ERs in an emergency.
The technical analysis of Dr. Sarin’s “study” – and also the statistical analysis of previous research regarding Medicaid – is beyond the scope of what can be covered in the Huey Alert.
I recommend reading the article by Aaron Brown – a statistics professor at New York University and University of San Diego.[2]
- Semi-Annual Eligibility Verification.
Medicaid is intended for low-income U.S. citizens.
Currently, annual income verification is required for eligibility certification.
Under the new bill, income certification will be required every six months to continue receiving benefits.
And proof of citizenship will be required.
The new requirements go into effect in October 2027.
- Community Engagement Requirement.
The new law will require healthy Medicaid recipients who are not disabled and who are not responsible for caring for children or other dependents to spend 20 hours per week in one of these activities:
- Employment
- Educational activity
- Training
- Community Service
According to KFF, a think tank for health policy research, the majority of both Republicans and Democrats favor this policy.[3]
Gideon Lukens and Elizabeth Zhang – of the radical think tank, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities – oppose the policy.
“Work requirements impose administrative barriers and red tape that lead to coverage losses among both people who are working as well as people the policies purport to exempt,” they say.
“They also lead to coverage losses for those who are between jobs.”[4]
This requirement won’t go into effect until January, 2027 or later.
- Medicaid co-pay requirement.
The new law will require Medicaid enrollees who are covered under the Medicaid expansion – and who earn between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty level – to make co-payments for some healthcare services.
The following healthcare services are exempt:
- Primary care
- Emergency care
- Mental health
- Substance abuse treatment
Each state will set the co-payment amount for Medicaid recipients within their state – not to exceed $35.00.
The current mandatory co-pay of $1 to $4 for prescription drugs won’t change.
This provision won’t take effect until October 1, 2028.
- Reducing the scam of states taxing Medicaid providers.
Medicaid bills are paid to healthcare providers by the state in which the providers operate.
But the federal government then reimburses each state 62.5% of what they’ve paid out to providers.
So bottom line, the federal government pays 62.5% of Medicaid costs while the states pay 37.5%.
But states have figured out a way to get extra money from the federal government. Here’s how it works:
- They tax Medicaid providers.
- The providers increase their fees to cover the costs of the taxes.
- The states pay 37.5% of the higher fees, in effect refunding the taxes they collected – or a portion of them.
- The federal government reimburses 62.5% of the higher provider fees, which didn’t cost the states anything.
All states except Alaska use this scheme to increase their Medicaid reimbursements from the federal government.[5]
The new law will reduce the maximum tax states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 can levy on Medicaid providers – from 6 percent to 3.5 percent.
This reduction will phase in gradually from 2028 through 2032.[6]
Ten states that didn’t expand their programs under the Affordable Care Act will see no changes.
- Rural Hospital Stabilization Fund.
This fund – called the Rural Health Transformation Program – was proposed by the Senate.[7]
It was created to reduce the impact on rural hospitals of the reduction in federal Medicaid funding that will be caused by the reduction in provider tax revenue.
The Rural Health Transformation Program will be given $10 billion per fiscal year for five years – a total of $50 billion dollars – from fiscal 2026 through 2030.
The funds will be given to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) – which is under the direction of Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Rural states desiring this funding must apply via a yet-to-be-determined application process by December 31, 2025.
Note that the reduction in state-mandated provider taxes doesn’t start phasing in until 2028… Yet the offset to those reduced tax revenues begins in fiscal 2026.
Apparently our elected lawmakers believe that too much too soon is better than too little, too late – especially when they are playing with your tax dollars.
Conclusions:
The KFF think tank estimates that the above changes to Medicaid could reduce federal spending on Medicaid by $1 trillion over ten years – an average of $100 billion per year after the changes go into effect beginning in 2026.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the changes to Medicaid eligibility requirements could result in 7.7 million people becoming uninsured.
These are illegal immigrants and those abusing the system.
Action:
- Be prepared to answer those who have heard the big lie about the Medicaid reforms.
- Be careful of emotional videos and posts not telling the truth.
What do you think? Email me at [email protected]
[1] Aaron Brown, https://reason.com/2025/07/17/debunking-the-100000-medicaid-deaths-myth/
[2] Ibid.
[3] Lawrence Wilson, https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/how-trumps-megabill-would-change-medicaid-5881628
[4] Ibid.
[5] Alice Burns, Elizabeth Hinton, Elizabeth Williams, and Robin Rudowitz, https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/5-key-facts-about-medicaid-and-provider-taxes/
[6] Lawrence Wilson, op. cit.
[7] Aurora Kammerer, https://www.spencerfane.com/insight/the-one-big-beautiful-bill-currently-appropriates-50-billion-for-rural-health-care/