U.S. Representatives Wesley Bell of St. Louis and Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City made clear that proposed cuts to Medicaid by the Republican controlled Congress will have a devastating effect on Missouri during a Wednesday online town hall discussion.
According to the Missouri congressmen, one in five Missourians, including 660,000 children, 109,000 seniors, and 186,000 people with disabilities, rely on Medicaid for health coverage.
“Public support for Medicaid is broad and bipartisan, with 76% of Americans backing the program. Voters expect policymakers to strengthen, not shrink, access to care,” Bell and Cleaver said in a release.
As the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee considers legislation that could strip $584 million from Missouri’s Medicaid program, Bell and Cleaver noted:
Medicaid is a financial backbone for rural hospitals, helping keep doors open and providers staffed. When funding drops, access disappears.
Heated debate on Capitol Hill
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a first-term Democrat and the first Black woman to represent Maryland, extensively grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday over the Trump administration’s proposal to slash $21.6 billion from the nation’s public health system — cuts that could disproportionately hurt Black and low-income communities.
“You’ve been unable in most cases to answer specific questions related to your agency,” Alsobrooks told Kennedy.
When the secretary argued that the senator isn’t familiar with NIH and its programs, Alsobrooks reminded him that his agency is headquartered in her state — and she was there recently, meeting with researchers Kennedy had fired.
She already understands his department, Alsobrooks told Kennedy: “I don’t need any help from you.”
Kennedy was questioned for hours Wednesday in two separate hearings — one in the House Appropriations Committee, and the other before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Lawmakers slammed his leadership, pointing to the West Texas measles outbreak, and condemned the Trump administration’s plans to cut billions more from the HHS budget.
At one point in the hearing, acknowledging that, if he were the parent of a small child, he would approve their vaccination, Kennedy added, “I advise the American people not to take medical advice from me.”
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the nonprofit American Public Health Association, said at a press conference after the hearing that the Trump administration’s stated reason for the cuts — fiscal responsibility — doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
“They’re not cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. They’re cutting functionality,” Benjamin said. “This isn’t just a budget issue. It’s a moral issue: $700 billion coming out of Medicaid will result in the loss of coverage for at least 13 million people.”
Although Kennedy said he pushed back on some cuts and has reinstated programs cut mistakenly, he said he intends to stay the course, implementing the DOGE plan and its “painful” cut reductions.
Already, some 20,000 HHS employees have been fired or taken a buyout or early retirement. If those additional budget cuts materialize, they could restrict or hamper healthcare access for millions of low-income Black Americans.
That likely would increase chronic health issues in the Black community, like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
The cuts also threaten to reverse the progress made in fighting America’s overdose crisis, a burden that disproportionately affects Black communities. Slashing Medicaid also means access to primary care services will decrease overall.
“When they cut the Medicaid budget, they will dramatically undermine the primary care capacity in the country,” said Dr. Benjamin.
The proposed budget would slash an estimated $715 billion from federal healthcare spending, much of it from Medicaid — a move that the Congressional Budget Office estimates would leave millions of Americans without coverage.
Critics argue these cuts would be devastating for Black families, who are more likely to rely on Medicaid and public health infrastructure as their only means of healthcare access.
Clara Bates of the Missouri Independent reported this week that over 90,000 Missourians could lose their Medicaid coverage under the Republican proposal to implement work requirements, according to a pair of recent studies.
A report from the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation published last month found between 84,000 and 96,000 Missourians ages 19 to 64 could lose coverage under the plan. Another report, from the left-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) published last week, estimated a reduction of 91,000 Missourians.
The CBPP analysis found that although 28% of Missouri Medicaid participants in the adult-expansion group could lose coverage, only 8% didn’t work in the last year and didn’t qualify for an exemption — meaning thousands of eligible participants would lose coverage.
Work requirements in the current version of the legislation would go into effect in 2029, though there are reports Republicans are considering moving up the timeline.
States would be required to monitor compliance and ensure those with exceptions don’t get kicked off. Participants would need to navigate red tape to prove they’re working or exempt.
Alvin A. Reid of the St. Louis American and Clara Bates of the Missouri Independent contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared here.