Congressional Budget Office Confirms House Budget Resolution Means to Cut Medicaid
March 17, 2025 - (Atlanta, GA) - Last week the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed the House Energy and Commerce Committee cannot reach $880 Billion in cuts without deep cuts to Medicaid, even if they eliminated funding for other programs overseen by the committee and made cuts to Medicare.
The CBO analysis finds the committee has only $581 Billion in spending that is not Medicaid or Medicare. Congressional leadership has long promised no cuts to Medicare which would mean a minimum of $299 Billion in cuts to Medicaid, and only if it made deep cuts to other safety net programs. In fact, eliminating every program besides safety net programs only adds up to $135 Billion.
Last month the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Budget Resolution that commits the House to $2 Trillion in cuts, with $880 Billion in cuts assigned to committee covering Medicaid. Based on previous proposals from House Budget Committee leadership, the $880 Billion in cuts are widely anticipated to come from the Medicaid program.
Medicaid reimburses health and long-term care businesses for care they provide to 1.5 million children, pregnant women and families, low-income workers, people with disabilities, and older adults in Georgia.
“Medicaid is known as ‘the lifeline’ for people with developmental disabilities,” said D’Arcy Robb, Executive Director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities. “Some of the health care services provided by Medicaid are not covered by private insurance. And it provides supports so that people with the most significant disabilities can live in their own homes and not have to spend their lives in hospitals and institutions. Medicaid is absolutely critical to Georgians with developmental disabilities and their families.”
Disability advocates across Georgia have rallied around the need to support Medicaid. February 26, 2025, the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD) hosted a press conference during all three of its legislative Advocacy Days, including one that focused on the need to reduce the Medicaid waitlist in Georgia, which is currently over 7,900. The Waivers Advocacy Day also focused on GCDD and stakeholders advocating for Georgia state lawmakers to fund 2,400 waivers for Georgians to receive Medicaid waivers. Carla Geeslin, an adult self-advocate with a developmental disability (DD) who used to live with her mother but now lives independently, spoke at the press conference about why Medicaid is important to her.
“We need funding help to have folks live in their own homes. We need our legislators help,” said Geeslin at the Advocacy Day press conference.
Medicaid waivers provide critical services for Georgians with disabilities, strengthen the direct support workforce, and help Georgia’s economy.
The data below is excerpted from a table prepared by the Center for American Progress. While details of cuts are unknown, this table shows potential federal funding losses by Congressional district if $880 billion in cuts were proportional to current Medicaid and CHIP enrollment.
For, more information about GCDD visit www.gcdd.org.
About the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities: The mission of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities is to bring about social and policy changes that promote opportunities for the wide spectrum of diverse people with developmental disabilities and their families to live, learn, lead, work, play and worship in their communities. www.gcdd.org
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