05.14.2025 / Statement

Families USA Statement on House Energy and Commerce Committee Vote to Advance Medicaid Cuts that Rip Health Care Away from Millions of Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, today released the following statement after Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to advance provisions of the GOP budget reconciliation package that will slash funding for Medicaid with the biggest cut ever, ripping health care access away from at least 13.7 million Americans.

“Just days after they released this disastrous bill, House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee voted to approve $715 billion in cuts to Medicaid — the biggest cut to the program ever. The committee debated this bill overnight on Tuesday, while the American people were asleep. They were hoping the millions of Americans who have been clogging phone lines and storming town halls wouldn’t notice as they voted to rip away health care coverage and increase the cost of care for millions of people, and cut the health care system we all rely on.

“If this bill was actually about waste and fraud, Republicans and Democrats could debate it in the light of day, and they’d be having meaningful conversations about the kind of policies that could actually bring health care costs down for everyone — things like reforms to rein in corporate abuses in Medicare Advantage, pharmaceutical corporation gaming of patent laws, and large hospital systems taking advantage of their monopolies and charging unconscionable prices for routine care.

“But we all know this partisan bill is nothing more than an attack on the health care system on which we all rely, to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. More uninsured individuals and cuts to state funding means hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other providers will face devastating cuts, threatening the ability of many, from maternity wards to rural hospitals, to keep their doors open, impacting not just those who rely on Medicaid for their health care, but everyone. Even the targeted attacks on specific communities, whether against blue states or immigrants, or gender affirming care or family planning health care providers, end up harming the health care of many more. This impacts all of us.

“Many Republicans on that Committee said they wouldn’t touch Medicaid and that the word Medicaid was not even in the bill. We can see that these were just empty promises, but we hope that other Republicans in the House and Senate come to their senses soon. The bill just doesn’t cut Medicaid, it guts Medicaid, and everyday Americans must call on Congress to oppose these draconian cuts that will rip health care from millions of Americans and raise costs for millions more. We must defeat this effort, and get back to the affordability agenda that voters wanted when voting last year.”