‘An attack on working class families’: Missouri Democrats decry proposed Medicaid cuts

By Clara Bates

Missouri Independent

Missouri’s Democratic members of Congress decried the proposed GOP cuts to Medicaid in a press briefing Wednesday, calling the move a handout to the rich that would harm the state’s most vulnerable.

The U.S. House is debating a massive reconciliation package that, as written now, would slash roughly $800 billion from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act provisions, and $300 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who represents a district which includes Kansas City, said the proposed changes would have “disastrous consequences” in Missouri, where Medicaid access can be a “matter of life or death” for millions of enrollees.

“It will lead to sicker and more pain-filled communities. It will be a massive economic weight holding down Missouri families and small businesses alike, as more of our neighbors are stricken with increased medical debt,” Cleaver said.

The Congressional Budget Office found the House’s plan would result in the lowest-earning households seeing resources decrease while the highest-earners gain.

One in five Missourians is on Medicaid, or over 1.2 million people. Missouri’s Medicaid program covers 39% of all children in the state and pays for two-thirds of nursing home care.

Congressman Wesley Bell, a Democrat who represents the district including St. Louis, said Medicaid cuts would cause people to delay care.

“Medicaid serves as a stabilizing force for entire communities, and when it’s cut, the consequences show up everywhere, from overcrowded ERs to delayed treatment and preventable illness,” Bell said. “And when those folks don’t have access to quality health care and preventative medicine, they go to the ER so we’re going to pay for it one way or the other.”

The GOP budget includes adding work requirements and other changes to Medicaid that the Congressional Budget Office estimates would boot millions nationally from the rolls.

 

In Missouri, work requirements alone could kick over 90,000 people off the rolls, many of whom would be working or eligible for an exception but get caught up in red tape. The changes taken together, including proposed increased eligibility checks and limitations on state-levied provider taxes, could remove around 166,000 people from the rolls in Missouri, a KFF analysis found.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley has been a rare Republican voice against Medicaid cuts, calling them morally and politically wrong.

“Far be it for me to agree with Senator Hawley, but his point is well taken,” Bell said. “This is a slap in the face. It is an attack on working class families.”







The bill is still being hashed out. It would also cut billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides food aid to low-income people and families.

“We all know what’s at stake,” Bell said. “We all know the folks who are at stake are some of our most vulnerable folks, seniors, children, working families. So we hope and expect that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle do the right thing.”