{"id":44149,"date":"2025-06-29T22:26:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T03:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44149"},"modified":"2025-06-30T03:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T08:45:08","slug":"gop-senators-unveil-amendment-to-shrink-medicaid-by-another-313b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44149","title":{"rendered":"GOP senators unveil amendment to shrink Medicaid by another $313B"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida Sen. Rick Scott\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R) and several Republican allies have unveiled an amendment to President Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d that would reduce Medicaid spending<\/u><\/a> by another $313 billion by limiting the expansion of Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amendment would prevent new enrollees in Medicaid expansion states from receiving the 9-to-1 enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) if they are able-bodied and don\u2019t have dependent children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The existing population of Medicaid enrollees in expansion states would keep their 9-to-1 FMAP share, even if they temporarily left the program to join the workforce and then returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reduced FMAP for new enrollees would go into effect in 2031.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected the Senate bill would reduce Medicaid spending by $930 billion, even without Scott\u2019s amendment to stop the future expansion of the 9-to-1 federal match share in Medicaid expansion states.  If it is adopted, it could reduce future Medicaid spending by $1.24 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBO found Scott\u2019s amendment would save another $313 billion over ten years, according to his office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott and other conservatives, including Sen. Mike Lee\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Utah) and Sen. Ron Johnson\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Wis.), have made a concerted push Sunday to persuade Republican colleagues to vote for the amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trio of conservatives are not saying whether they will vote for the GOP megabill if their amendment is rejected, hoping to ramp up pressure on colleagues to support the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Senate GOP sources expect Scott, Lee and Johnson to ultimately vote \u201cyes\u201d on final passage to support Trump\u2019s agenda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-S.D.) pledged to Scott Saturday night that he would support the amendment in exchange<\/u><\/a> for Scott\u2019s vote on a critical motion to proceed to the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to pass. If you think about it, it\u2019s good policy. It gives the states the opportunity to get ready. Nobody gets kicked off,\u201d Scott told The Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he would vote for final passage of the 940-page Senate bill if his amendment doesn\u2019t pass, Scott said, \u201cI\u2019ll figure it out then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy goal is to support Trump. I like his agenda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amendment is cosponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Idaho), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thune\u2002<\/u><\/a>told reporters earlier Sunday that he expects the vast majority of his conference to vote for the amendment, but he wasn\u2019t sure whether it would pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe think it\u2019s really good policy. Yeah, I think a lot of us is going to be supporting it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he had promised Scott it would be adopted to the bill, Thune said: I don\u2019t think you can ever promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019re going to do what we can to support the policy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Mike Johnson\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-La.) ruled out changes to the FMAP formula in Medicaid expansion states when the House was putting together its reconciliation bill in early May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson, the Wisconsin senator and cosponsor of the amendment, said the proposal would roll back a core piece of ObamaCare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are being called and arms are being twisted,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody loses coverage. \u2026 It puts all the states on notice that this gravy train \u2026 is going to end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he would vote to pass the bill if the amendment isn\u2019t adopted, Johnson declined to reveal his plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get flushed out,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to apply as much pressure as possible to get this amendment passed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said if the implementation date was moved up from 2031 to 2030 it would save \u201c$417 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s real money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Sen. Rick Scott\u2002(R) and several Republican allies have unveiled an amendment to President Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d that would reduce Medicaid spending by another $313 billion by limiting the expansion of Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. The amendment would prevent new enrollees in Medicaid expansion states from receiving the 9-to-1 enhanced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":44152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[7082,1324,2284],"class_list":["post-44149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-amendment","tag-another","tag-medicaid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44153,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44149\/revisions\/44153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}