Republican Explains Potential Changes to Medicaid

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Apr 22, 2025 at 12:52 PM EDT


GOP Representative Austin Scott of Georgia explained a potential change House Republicans could make to Medicaid during an interview on Fox Business' Mornings With Maria. Newsweek reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson for comment via email.

Why It Matters

More than 80 million Americans are currently enrolled in Medicaid, a government program providing health care to lower income individuals. President Donald Trump has said he would not cut the program, but some Republicans in Congress are eyeing cuts, setting up a potential intraparty battle over the matter.

What to Know

Scott said House Republicans have been discussing a potential change to Medicaid expansion. Currently, states that have enacted Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act receive a 90 percent federal matching rate, known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). This means the federal government takes on 90 percent of those costs, while the state governments take on 10 percent.

Republicans are considering lowering the FMAP, which would shift more the funding to the states, Scott told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Monday. "When the Dems expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, they made that percentage match 90-10, so the federal government is paying 90 percent of the Medicaid expansion," Scott said. "What we have talked about is moving that 90 percent level of the expansion back to the more traditional levels of 50 to approximately 80 percent, instead of the 90-10." He said "nobody would be kicked off Medicaid" as long as governors continued to fund the program.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/republican-explains-potential-medicaid-changes-2062614

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What's missing out of that discussion is that not all states accepted the Medicaid Expansion. It was ORIGINALLY mandated but the SCOTUS threw the mandate out.

There are currently 41 states (including D.C.) that accepted Medicaid Expansion - https://www.kff.org/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions/



But if this particular GOP plan goes through, then they will obviously be on the hook to fund more of it - all to give billionaires enough to compete in the "Who has the biggest Yacht" contest.

Found some info on state specifics here - https://stateline.org/2025/04/17/states-that-enshrined-medicaid-expansion-in-their-constitutions-could-be-in-a-bind/