For Immediate Release: May 22, 2025
Contact: Traci Gleason
U.S. House Sets Stage for Largest Cuts to Medicaid, SNAP in Programs’ History
House-passed budget reconciliation bill would put health coverage and food assistance for hundreds of thousands of Missourians on the chopping block
Early this morning, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the largest Medicaid and food assistance cuts in history. The sweeping changes to the programs will take away health coverage and food assistance for Missourians, harming families and communities across the state. The effects will be particularly acute in rural areas of Missouri.
“This bill would raise costs on families and make it harder for Missourians of all ages to meet their basic needs,” said Amy Blouin, President and CEO of Missouri Budget Project, a nonprofit public policy analysis organization that analyzes state budget, tax, and economic issues. “Despite the rhetoric from DC, this puts Medicaid and food assistance at risk for all Missourians, including children, older adults, Missourians with serious health conditions and disabilities, veterans, and workers with low-paying jobs.”
The bill would add new barriers and red tape to both Medicaid (called MO HealthNet in Missouri) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) and increase state costs for the programs.
“Let’s be clear about what’s at stake here,” continued Blouin. “We’re talking about parents not being able to afford life-saving medications, older adults and their families not being able to get long-term care, and Missourians working low-paid jobs being unable to go to the doctor when they’re sick. This is about parents not eating so their kids can, or children going to school hungry.”
The House bill cuts:
- At least $625 billion from Medicaid through work requirements for those eligible through Medicaid expansion, increased red tape and added requirements that will reduce coverage, and restrictions to how states raise money to pay for Medicaid, among other changes.
- About $300 billion from nutrition assistance through a massive cost shift to states and expanded harsh work requirements for parents of school-aged children and older adults.
“Medicaid helps keep Missourians healthy so they can work, succeed in school and contribute to their communities,” said Blouin, “and about 9 in 10 Missourians with Medicaid health insurance are already working or qualify for an exemption because of a disability, caregiving, or school.”
“Other states have experimented with work requirements, and each of them have shown the same thing. The requirements do not increase employment – but eligible people lose health care because of administrative errors and red tape.”
More than 90,000 Missourians are projected to lose their health coverage as a result of just this provision.
Missourians struggling to make ends meet will be further harmed by cuts to SNAP. With grocery prices up and forecasted to rise further, the cuts will put 150,000 Missourians’ food assistance at risk.
“If a parent loses their job because their 7-year-old’s school had too many snow days, or a 62-year-old can’t work because they’re going through cancer treatment or they can’t find work because of age discrimination, they would lose the assistance they need to put food on the table,” said Blouin. “This effects every member of the family too, because it would reduce food benefits for the entire household.”
Federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will be devastating to those who lose health care and nutrition assistance, but the consequences to the health and economic wellbeing of Missouri’s communities will be widespread, and especially acute in rural areas.
“Medicaid helps rural health care providers stay afloat so they can serve everyone in their communities,” said Blouin. “Many rural hospitals are already on the brink of closing, and decreased Medicaid funding could push them over the edge.”
“SNAP benefits are spent directly in local stores,” she added. “Federal funds from both programs directly support critical jobs in our communities, which then fuels additional economic activity in Missouri.”
Other provisions in the 1,000+ page bill would result in increased health care costs for Missourians. In total, nearly 200,000 Missourians are projected to become uninsured as a result of the bill – a number that will likely increase due to last minute changes to the legislation that have yet to be analyzed.
The House chose to include these cuts to pay for a larger tax package that will increase the deficit to give a wildly lopsided tax cut to the nation’s top earners. Simply put, when cuts to federal programs are accounted for, the package takes resources from the poorest Americans and gives them to the richest.
Congress is scheduled to recess next week for Memorial Day, and the U.S. Senate will continue its work on the bill in June.
“We thank Senator Hawley for his vocal opposition to many of the harmful changes to Medicaid that would hurt Missouri’s working families and rural health care,” said Blouin.
“While at first glance some of the provisions of the House bill may seem to be administrative or well-intentioned, the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will cause Missourians to lose the health care and food assistance they need to get by, and that includes children, older adults, Missourians with serious health conditions or disabilities, veterans, and workers in low-paying jobs.”
“We ask Senator Hawley and Senator Schmitt to further examine the many consequences of the House bill’s cuts for Missourians and oppose any plan that includes provisions that would result in their constituents losing health coverage or food assistance.”
#
The Missouri Budget Project is a nonprofit public policy analysis organization that analyzes state budget, tax, and economic issues.
For more information, see:
House Budget Reconciliation Would Cut Health Care, Food Assistance for Missourians
