By Rep. Judy Chu (D-Ca.) said she worries over the future of at-home care for seniors if President Donald Trump’s federal funding package passes in the House.
Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” proposes cutting billions from social benefit programs, including $800 billion from Medicaid and $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Chu called the proposed reduction in Medicaid funding the most “devastating cut to services for seniors in our lifetime” since it will force states to heavily reduce the amount of money they spend on at-home care for older people and people with disabilities.
“This will be really tough for seniors if these cuts go through,” Chu said during The Hill’s Health Safety Net Programs: Will Older Adults Fall Through?
More than 7 million Americans over 65 are enrolled in Medicaid, and 11 million adults between the ages of 50 and 64 receive health care coverage through Medicaid, according to the program’s website.
Medicaid also provides health insurance coverage to about 5 million disabled Americans.
Medicaid is also a major funder of nursing home care. Medicare, the federal health insurance program for Americans 65 and older, only covers short nursing home stays. Medicaid will often pay for Longer-term nursing home stays and at-home care for low-income Americans who qualify.
The program pays more than 60 percent of long-term care residents in nursing homes, according to reporting from KFF Health News.
The proposed Medicaid cuts have received pushback from disabled and older Americans across the country. Medicaid cut protesters disrupted a House Committee on Energy and Commerce meeting last week as lawmakers began a marathon markup session.
Capitol Hill police arrested 26 people and removed several protesters in wheelchairs as they shouted phrases like “keep your greedy hand off our Medicaid” and “no cuts to Medicaid” at lawmakers.
Protests urging lawmakers to oppose the proposed Medicaid cuts have popped up around the country, including in New York, New Hampshire, and California.
Several Democratic lawmakers, including Chu, have held town halls in their districts about the proposed Medicaid cuts in the federal spending package. Chu told The Hill that her constituents in southern California are “incredibly fearful” and “anxious” over the possible cuts.
“They feel devastated by the potential cuts that could happen to them and to their fellow neighbors,” said Chu. “I have never seen such passion in my life, they have turned out in record numbers at the town halls, the pack each one of them.”
It’s clear, she added, that Americans across the country are “feeling these devastating cuts very personally.”