The Senate’s version of a bill to enact President Trump’s agenda goes further than a House-passed bill to reduce Medicaid spending, according to GOP aides familiar with the legislation.
GOP aides say it will go further to tighten Medicaid eligibility requirements and to restrict states from using health care provider taxes to draw down more federal Medicaid funding.
“It’s still f’d up,” a GOP aide said about the Senate’s Medicaid legislation, which does nothing to alleviate the concerns of several Senate Republicans who raised objections to the Medicaid language in the House-passed bill.
At least four Republican senators have publicly raised concerns that Medicaid spending cuts passed by the House could hurt their constituents: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).
Senate GOP leaders can afford to lose only three votes and still pass the party-line bill.
A broad range of GOP senators, including Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Rick Scott (Fla.) had called for more deficit reduction in the bill, which is expected to spend roughly $150 billion on border security and immigration enforcement and increase defense spending by another $150 billion.
