Latest on Medicaid Cuts

Passing across party lines (215-214) the 1,000 page House bill promises tax breaks but also includes one of the strictest Medicaid work requirements proposed by Congress. Called “community engagement requirements,” the bill mandates that able-bodied adults without dependents work, complete community service or participate in a work program for at least 80 hours a month or be enrolled in an educational program.

Those who are under 19 years old, pregnant or receiving postpartum medical care are exempt from the work requirements.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan entity that provides analysis for Congress, estimated the work requirements would reduce federal spending by $280 billion over a decade. But it also found that the number of people with health care would be reduced by about 8.6 million.

Health policy research nonprofit KFF estimated, based on an early draft of the bill, that California could see between 1.2 million and 2 million in enrollment losses to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.

The federal bill also blocks Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services along with other health care needs. Federal money already cannot pay for abortion services, but state Medicaid funds in some states, including California, do.

Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties said the cuts would “be devastating to the hundreds of thousands of low-income Californians who rely on Planned Parenthood for life-saving cancer screening, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and other vital health care services.”