McClellan, Virginia Democrats warn of dire impact to state if proposed Medicaid cuts materialize

U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, said she had been awake over 36 hours by the time she joined a call with members of the media on Thursday to discuss GOP lawmakers’ plan to slash $625 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade.

The lack of sleep didn’t disturb her, she said, but her Republican colleagues’ advancement of Medicaid overhaul proposals that could leave over 630,000 Virginians  and millions of Americans without health insurance, however, did. 

McClellan serves in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which wrapped up a 25-hour session Wednesday by voting to pass Republican-led legislation to cut Medicaid funding by tens of billions and impose “work requirements nationwide for able-bodied adults between the ages of 19 and 65, with several exceptions, including for pregnant people, enrollees with certain disabilities or serious medical conditions, and parents of dependent children,” States Newsroom reported. 

“That is what happened while you were sleeping,” McClellan said Thursday. 

The Medicaid cuts are part of what President Donald Trump has dubbed a “big, beautiful bill,” and it’s likely the Republican-controlled Congress could approve the huge package of measures and send Trump the legislation to sign through their budget reconciliation process. 

States’ allocation of federal funding for Medicaid is determined by a formula called Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), which remains untouched for now. But some low-income Virginians could contend with the work requirements if the overall package fully passes. 

Virginia resident Aida Pacheco called the proposed work requirements “insulting” earlier this year when describing how her adult daughter had to stop work during aggressive breast cancer treatment, which Medicaid now helps her cover. 

She expressed frustration that some opponents of Medicaid have accused beneficiaries of “abusing the system” or being people who “don’t want to work.” 

And while people who utilize Medicaid do work — and often tap into the program should their employer not provide health insurance — Pacheco said people like her daughter would be in health care limbo if Trump’s planned overhaul succeeds.

Henrico County resident Andrew Daughtry, who joined McClellan’s press call Thursday, said he left his job at Dollar General to pursue his dream of working in construction several years ago. Though he was able to earn more money in that field, he no longer had health insurance, so Medicaid allowed him to stay on top of his physical and mental health care in recent years. 

Now temporarily out of work because of an injury on the job, he said he’s sorting through worker’s compensation while he prepares for forthcoming surgeries. Medicaid has helped him manage his appointments.

“I want to tell Congress, ‘please don’t question our work ethic because that is insulting,’” Daughtry said. “I couldn’t get health care through my job but I need Medicaid to pay the thousands of dollars of injuries that have happened on the job.”

 McClellan noted how uninsured people are more likely to avoid regular checkups or treatments for chronic disorders — resulting in emergency room visits when dire situations arise. As emergency rooms are federally-required to treat all patients, this means care for uninsured patients who cannot pay can become a shared financial burden on taxpayers. 

“When you kick people off of their health insurance, that raises the cost for everybody else,” McClellan said. 

While the FMAP hasn’t yet changed, McClellan remains concerned it could. If that happens, state lawmakers will have to determine how to keep the roughly 630,000 Virginians that are eligible under the state’s 2018 expansion covered. 

Trigger language in that law could end the expansion if federal funding is adjusted. Currently, Virginia’s private acute-care hospitals are footing the 10% not covered by federal funding. Some state lawmakers suggested earlier this year that a special session could become possible to sort out if and how the state could take up the rest of the funding mantle. 

Meanwhile, Gov. Glenn Youngkin reserved $900 million of the state’s budget surplus as “cushion” for “short-term disruptions” from steep federal cuts and job layoffs. 

Some Republican members of Virginia’s congressional delegation expressed satisfaction Thursday about being able to advance Trump’s agenda without altering the funding formula for Virginia’s federal Medicaid allocation 

U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, said that he’s “pleased to see Virginia’s vulnerable populations protected in the Medicaid portion of the reconciliation bill and no change to the federal match rate.”

However, an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shared with States Newsroom shows that the Medicaid changes would cut $625 billion in federal spending over the next decade. About 10.3 million people would lose access to Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, with 7.6 million people becoming uninsured during that 10-year budget window.

After fielding constituents’ concerns about the federal cuts for months, Wittman publicly cautioned his colleagues in April, co-signing a letter to Congressional leadership emphasizing protection of “children, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and pregnant women who rely on Medicaid for their health and economic security.”

He added Thursday that trimming or eliminating other aspects of the program will ensure that it is “a sustainable program for years to come.”

U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, however, had sharper words for his Democratic colleagues. 

“Congressional Democrats and progressive prognosticators shouted day and night that the Energy and Commerce Committee couldn’t make budget recommendations without massive, significant cuts to Medicaid,” he said in a statement, in an apparent reference to FMAP’s preservation in the proposed measure. “And yet, House Republicans proved them all wrong.” 

No other Republican members of Virginia’s congressional delegation responded to requests for comment by the time of this publication.

Now that the Energy and Commerce committee’s recommendations have advanced, they will be considered next by the Budget Committee. Changes to the reconciliation bill — how Congress is working through the budget right now — will still be possible. Then they will have to be voted on by both the full House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. 

This article first appeared on Virginia Mercury and is republished here with permission. Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence.