Minnesota State Capitol. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Senate Media Services.
Medicaid advocates hoping to stave off billions in cuts to the program for low-income and disabled Minnesotans have found an unlikely ally: Republican lawmakers.
“Drastic reductions to Medicaid funding have the potential to impact the 1.4 million people we serve and place incredible pressure on our overall state budget,” Sen. Jim Abeler, R.-Anoka, and 13 other Minnesota GOP lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Republican members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, President Donald Trump, and the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“There are no other sources to make up the lost federal share beyond severely impacting the seniors and those with disabilities who we serve,” the letter continues. “This is contrary to how we Republicans respect the aged and the vulnerable.”
Republicans in the U.S. House have endorsed a budget proposal that would require cutting $880 billion in funding from programs overseen by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which includes Medicaid. They intend to use the savings on defense and border spending, as well as tax cuts whose primary beneficiaries would be the wealthiest Americans.
Medicaid, which is known in Minnesota as Medical Assistance, serves 1.4 million Minnesotans, or about one-quarter of the population, including 650,000 children and 125,000 people with disabilities.
“Given some of the large numbers coming out of Washington, we are concerned that there is no practical way to accommodate some of the proposed massive reductions and still provide the kind of care these vulnerable people require,” the state Republican lawmakers write. Steep funding cuts would require Minnesota counties to “raise local property taxes drastically or close services,” they add.
The letter also argues Minnesota has been a “leader in providing access to care and containing costs,” and that dramatic cuts would jeopardize those efforts.
“We need the flexibility to keep doing what works,” Abeler said in a press release accompanying the letter. “Deep, unworkable cuts are not the answer.”
Abeler also criticized the Walz administration for a proposed budget containing smaller spending increases on disability services.
Democrats endorsed the GOP lawmakers’ letter.
“Thanks to the 14 GOP Minnesota legislators who recognize the damage the U.S. House GOP budget would cause,” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota’s Fourth District. “It’s wrong to cut Medicaid — a health care lifeline for over a million Minnesota seniors, disabled, and children — to give more tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk.”
In the past, Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber has been critical of Trump administration efforts to cut Medicaid. “I made a promise to protect these critical programs for those who need it most, and it is a promise I intend to keep,” he wrote in a March 2019 press release.
GOP Rep. Tom Emmer spoke in favor Tuesday of Republicans’ budget resolution: “I caution the media against echoing Democrats’ hysteria on where savings will come from.”
Groups opposing the cuts, including the AARP, as well as groups more amenable to them, like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, have pointed out that it would be virtually impossible to hit the budget’s deficit reduction targets without cutting Medicaid.