(The Center Square) –
With cuts to Medicaid being talked about at federal level, some Illinois lawmakers are sounding the alarm.
Recently, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed a budget resolution that calls for the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is responsible for Medicaid, to cut $880 billion over the next decade.
Medicaid, a joint federal and state health care program for low-income individuals, covers about 3.5 million people in Illinois. The Pritzker administration has said that over 750,000 Illinois residents could lose their health care coverage if the cuts are made.
House Democrats called for a subject matter hearing Wednesday on the possible cuts by the federal government. During the hearing, state Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, said if Medicaid is cut, people will die.
“I wish this was just fear mongering but it is just basic logic,” said Syed. “If people don’t have health care, they’re not going to seek out health care because it is too expensive for them.”
State Rep. CD Davidsmeyer, R-Murrayville, said the hearing was a case of political grandstanding.
“I know we live in a political world but if we cared about the policy, it wouldn’t be about the politics, it would be about the policy and I hope we can focus in the future on the policies that actually help people who truly need help,” said Davidsmeyer.
Davidsmeyer added that the state keeps shoving people into the Medicaid program that underpays for health care and the reimbursements are not good.
Republicans, including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, have said they do not plan to cut Medicaid. Johnson insisted in a CNN interview that the focus will instead be ferreting out “fraud, waste and abuse” in Medicaid.
Ted Dabrowski, president of the Illinois nonprofit Wirepoints, agrees and said officials need to take a serious look at Medicaid. He said it has been turned into an entitlement for the middle class instead of remaining focused on the poor and needy, and that’s driven state enrollment and spending to unsustainable levels.
