Axios - Republicans in Congress want to make the biggest changes to Medicaid in its 60-year history. But politics and budget math are increasingly raising doubts about whether it's feasible to cut the program to pay for a giant tax package.
Medicaid's growth makes the program a prime target for federal funding cuts. But increased enrollment during the pandemic has also made the program popular enough with voters that it's become something of a political third rail, similar to Medicare.
Republican leaders in the House are caught between wary moderates and conservative hardliners in trying to hit a target of up to $880 billion in Medicaid savings. The party is also struggling with how to reconcile its working-class appeal with cuts to the safety net program that red states have, at least in some fashion, embraced.
The potential for millions of people losing their coverage heading into the midterm election cycle hangs over the deliberations about what to do next.
- Many voters "don't want it cut, because they know how important it has been for them, for their families and their neighbors," said Matt Salo, a health care consultant and former executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.
A key House committee postponed a critical markup of legislation that was supposed to take place this week, to get more time to figure out a plan for handling Medicaid cuts. Go deeper
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