1. United States
2. S.C.
3. Letter

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the GOP's megabill has found that the bill's tax cuts for the wealthy will trigger over $500 Billion in automatic cuts to Medicare due to "Paygo" - a budget rule that requires any reduction in revenue to be offset by cuts in other areas of the budget. While Republicans have repeatedly promised to not directly cut Medicare, their megabill will indirectly cause massive reductions to Medicare spending. The reconciliation bill to fund tax cuts for the wealthy that, if finalized, will necessitate millions in Medicaid cuts. Medicaid provides health insurance for 72 million low-income and disabled Americans. The program is jointly funded and administered by states/territories and the federal government, with the federal government covering a greater share of Medicaid costs in poorer states. Republicans are weighing two primary options to gut Medicaid: cutting federal funding for Medicaid Forty states and DC expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act to cover over 20 million additional low-income adults. The federal government covers 90% of Medicaid expansion costs, but Republicans are considering reducing this rate, which would make Medicaid expansion financially unsustainable in most states. Twelve states also have provisions to automatically end expansion if federal funding rates drop below 90%. Republicans are also considering imposing burdensome Medicaid work requirements, even though 92% of non-disabled adult Medicaid enrollees are already employed. One estimate concluded that reducing federal contributions to Medicaid expansion would cause over 34,000 additional deaths annually. Medicaid work requirements are costly to implement and would result in further massive coverage losses. Medicaid is a universally well-regarded and highly cost-effective insurance program that connects people to life-saving health care. Cutting it will directly harm millions of Americans. I demand you oppose a budget reconciliation bill that includes these damaging cuts to Medicaid and endangers the health care access of millions of Americans. Republicans are aiming to push this bill through the House and Senate by Memorial Day.