Legislation introduced by House Republicans late Sunday would slash Medicaid spending significantly by imposing new restrictions on beneficiaries like work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks, but it did not include the most controversial changes that had been floated.
The bill from the House Energy and Commerce Committee comes ahead of what’s expected to be a marathon committee meeting on Tuesday to discuss and advance the measure. It appears to cater more to the moderate wing of the party than to conservatives, who had been agitating for drastic cuts to the program.
The legislation does not include a per-beneficiary cap on federal Medicaid spending. Nor does it contain a reduction in the federal match to states, both of which were being pushed by conservatives.
Moderate and swing-district Republicans had made it clear to leadership they would not support legislation that would cut Medicaid benefits. President Trump repeatedly pledged to protect Medicaid, but he has not gone into detail on what kinds of policies he would support.
Medicaid has emerged as one of the key sticking points in the sweeping legislation Republicans are writing to advance President Trump’s domestic agenda.
The Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, has been tasked with finding $880 billion in savings as part of the overall goal of slashing at least $1.5 trillion to pay for Trump’s domestic priorities, including an extension of his 2017 tax cuts.
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