One month into a new administration, there are increasing threats to our country’s foundational health programs and those that they serve. Such threats range from dire cuts to the Medicaid program that Congress will begin voting on next week, to the firing of federal employees that oversee critical health programs, to inappropriate access to program and beneficiary data. The Center for Medicare Advocacy will continue to work with our partners to address these threats and protect access to quality, affordable health care.
Call to Action to Protect Medicaid
The U.S. House of Representatives is planning a vote next week to fast-track trillions in cuts to funding for Medicaid and other essential programs. Last week, House Republicans marked up a budget resolution that would require Congress to dramatically cut Medicaid. The resolution directs theHouse Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, to cut a minimum of $880 billion in federal spending, meaning cuts to Medicaid are imminent. Cuts to Medicaid harm Medicare beneficiaries.Over 7 million seniors and 12 million people with Medicare who rely on Medicaid for their health and long-term care needs.
Now is the time to tell Congress to vote no on the budget resolution. Tell them to oppose the budget resolution and any other legislation that would cut Medicaid because seniors will be harmed. Use this call-in line to reach your member of Congress: 866-426-2631. (Call-in number provided by SEIU and will remain open for the fight ahead!)
- See CMA Issue brief (2017): Issue Brief: Nursing Home Residents in Jeopardy if Medicaid Becomes a Block Grant – Center for Medicare Advocacy
Cuts to HHS Staff
The federal Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which runs the Medicare program. As noted in an article by Inside Health Policy (Feb. 18, 2025), “[t]he Trump administration fired thousands [of] probationary employees at HHS and its subagencies over the weekend apparently without regard to the programs they worked on, adding to widespread uncertainty among health care stakeholders about how the new administration will handle everything from FDA user fees to the administration of Medicare and Medicaid.” According to the Huffington Post (Feb. 18, 2025), despite claims from a Trump official that a list of protected employees includes those working on “the management of Medicare”, this claim “does not appear to be true” and dismissed employees include those working on issues relating to Medicare, including drug price negotiation.
The Center for Medicare Advocacy is greatly concerned about how these firings and potential reductions in agency funding may impede or scuttle HHS and CMS’s important, long-running investigations and prosecutions of health care fraud schemes, impair its enforcement efforts in a variety of patient care settings – and nursing homes in particular – and impact oversight and audit of Medicare Advantage and Part D plans.
Affordable Care Act – Navigator Funding Decimated
The Affordable Care Act’s navigator program helps people with enrollment into marketplace plans, as well as “connect people to Medicaid/CHIP, help them understand how to use their coverage and assist with other problems” as noted by Inside Health Policy. On February 14, the Trump Administration cut funding for this vital program by 90%. As noted in a statement from Community Catalyst, “slashing resources for the trusted, community-based, unbiased experts who help people enroll in affordable health coverage […] will create unnecessary barriers to care, particularly for communities facing systemic inequities in health care access.”
More…
In addition, see the Center for Medicare Advocacy’s and National Health Law Program’s Alert regarding “DOGE” and Access to Data, and statement from National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare regarding DOGE accessing Social Security Administration records.
February 20, 2025 – D. Lipschutz