Stop Medicaid Cuts Now!

NACDD has been watching closely the recent developments of the Senate Budget Resolution. The resolution was voted in favor early Friday morning. Now, the resolution heads to the House for consideration.

Here’s what you need to know

On Friday morning, 2/21/2025, the U.S. Senate adopted its budget resolution that calls for at least $1 billion in cuts to programs. The U.S. House of Representatives’ resolution is seeking $880 billion in cuts in the budget.

The President and members of Congress have vowed not to cut Social Security and Medicare. This only leaves Medicaid. Cutting $880 Billion dollars from the budget means cutting Medicaid by many hundred of billions of dollars. Medicaid is a major source of health coverage for people with disabilities, the aging, children, and people who earn low-income wages.

If this resolution is passed, it will have a direct impact on people with disabilities. This includes people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), ?family members, caregivers, and other community stakeholders.

The Statewide Impact

The partnership between states and the federal government is absolutely necessary.

Each state receives funding from the federal government and covers almost 82 million low-income children, pregnant women, adults, seniors, and people with disabilities in the United States. Medicaid is also a major source of funding for hospitals, community health centers, physicians, providers, and nursing homes.

If Medicaid cuts are enacted, this will have a dire impact on the people with disabilities. It will hurt people who live in your town and your neighborhood. Many people in every state will be harmed. ?

People will lose home and community based services. It means direct support workers will lose their jobs. It will mean hospitals will close, especially in rural communities. Without Medicaid, people will not get their prescriptions medications, their dialysis, their occupational and physical therapies. These are just a few of the ways such huge Medicaid cuts will harm people in every state in our country. ?

Additionally, Medicaid cuts will have a massive impact on states. Nationally, states receive almost 60% of Medicaid funding from the federal government. If cut, there is no state in this nation that will ?have the ability ?to absorb these costs.

Find out how Medicaid supports your state here.

What Medicaid Means for People with Disabilities:

Medicaid means disabled and older people can live at home and age in place. Medicaid is the largest payer of home and community-based services for disabled and older Americans who cannot afford these costs out of pocket.

Any cuts to Medicaid risks sending disabled people and older adults back to institutions.

• More than 8 million older adults and people with disabilities rely on Medicaid for long-term supports and services in their homes and communities (HCBS).
• Medicaid pays for nearly 70% of all HCBS which is not covered by Medicare and private insurance. HCBS is likely to be impacted first by cuts because it is an optional Medicaid service. See your state percentage of Medicaid for HCBS here. This means people will not be able to live in their own homes and communities.

Medicaid’s federal-state partnership is popular and efficient. Medicaid supports jobs in the healthcare sector, contributes to the state’s economy, and helps maintain the health and well-being of the population.

• Medicaid makes up 56 percent of total federal funding allocated to states, the largest source of federal funding to states. The federal government covers at least 50 percent of Medicaid program costs and states financing the rest.
• States share the cost of providing Medicaid benefits with the federal government. See your state share here. See your percentage of federal funding for state budgets here.

Voters favor protecting Medicaid over making cuts. In 2023, 84% of voters favored protecting Medicaid from harmful cuts over cutting Medicaid. Today, at least twice as many people want to increase spending for Medicaid and Medicare than cut it.

Act and Ask:?

Individuals with disabilities, family members, and other community stakeholders need to reach out to the U.S. House Representatives and share that these cuts would have a negative impact on their daily lives.

When Congress is considering massive changes to the Medicaid system, American people should have the opportunity to weigh in on policies that directly affect their lives by speaking to the lawmakers they elected to represent them in Congress. While technically allowed by local House rules, the short-cut process of using reconciliation to shift billions of dollars of Medicaid costs to the states is not only bad policy, but in bad faith and not to be trusted.

So, we ask: what’s the rush? Why is Congress hurrying through this process at such an incredibly fast pace? This is not typical, and everyone in our country deserves an answer as to why the process is being done this way.

Our founding fathers intentionally set things up this way. They wanted us to have the chance to understand what proposals are being made and to let the people we elect know how we feel about those things. This is not happening this time. People are not being given ample information and are not being given enough time to make their voices heard. ?

NACDD urges you to:

1. Call your US House of Representatives: 866-426-2631 or by the U.S. House Website: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative ?
2. Tell them this is moving too fast. You need time, as our founding fathers intended, to understand what is being proposed and to have your voice heard about the proposal.
3. Let them know the impact that cuts to Medicaid will have on your life and your community. Tell them what Medicaid does for you. If you have HCBS (also sometimes called a ‘waiver’), tell them how it helps you and what you will lose if that Medicaid service goes away.
4. Connect with your State DD Council to learn more about their outreach efforts - both locally and nationally - to help stop the vote to cut Medicaid.