Republicans Make Big Medicaid Cuts in Their Reconciliation Bill — But Not the Ones Conservatives Wanted

The House Energy and Commerce Committee laid out parts of how it plans to tackle Medicaid in long-awaited bill text release Sunday night. It’s unclear if it will appease conservatives.

Brett Guthrie
Tom Williams/AP

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee set out to find at least $880 billion in spending cuts for their reconciliation bill. According to the panel’s chair, Rep. Brett Guthrie, his committee found even more, while somehow not making the most politically sensitive cuts to Medicaid that conservatives have called for.

Even so, there are plenty of Medicaid reductions.

In early bill text that was released Sunday night, Republicans lay out provisions that would impose work requirements on able-bodied Medicaid recipients, establish eligibility checks every six months, ban Medicaid funds from going to gender-affirming care for trans minors and block some federal funds from going to states that “provide health care coverage for illegal immigrants under Medicaid.”