By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump “shows an openness” to work requirements for Medicaid, Jason Smith, chair of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, said on Fox News Sunday, as lawmakers try to agree on spending cuts to partly offset the cost of a sweeping tax-cut bill.
Congressional Republicans are weighing steep cuts to Medicaid in their efforts to piece together a landmark tax-cut bill they hope to enact by July 4.
Medicaid provides healthcare coverage to 83 million low-income people and is jointly funded by the federal government and states.
One option with broad Republican support is to require a minimum work requirement for adult recipients.
“The president has been very clear he does not want to cut benefits for individuals on Medicaid and Medicare. He wants to create efficiencies and reforms. He shows an openness to work requirements,” Smith said on Sunday.
Medicaid is on the list of programs House Republicans who advocate deep spending cuts are eyeing as they seek a way to reduce federal spending by as much as $2 trillion over the next decade. The cuts would help cover the cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts in a bill that nonpartisan analysts say could add $5.8 trillion to the nation’s $36 trillion in debt over the next decade.
There are deep divisions among congressional Republicans about how to proceed on Medicaid.
Most adults on Medicaid work full- or part-time, and most who do not are full-time caregivers or disabled, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
A federal Medicaid work requirement could lead to as many as 5.2 million adults aged 19 to 55 losing eligibility, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization.
“You’re talking about really ripping away healthcare for millions of Americans, for seniors who are receiving skilled nursing, for working families, for children,” said Representative Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Colorado, on MSNBC’s news program The Weekend.
Other federal welfare programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, have work requirements for some recipients. Republicans have also floated expanded work requirements for SNAP to shrink agricultural spending in line with the House budget plan.
Asked by host Shannon Bream about whether the tax bill would impose higher taxes on high-income individuals, Smith said Republicans’ priority is to provide tax relief for small businesses, working families and farmers.
“There’s no problem to eliminate loopholes that the wealthy have benefited from to make sure that working-class Americans aren’t paying taxes on tips,” Smith said.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter, Marguerita Choy and Rod Nickel)
