Earlier this week, members of Congress returned to Washington, D.C., from their spring recess, with both the House of Representatives and the Senate laser-focused on delivering a 2026 domestic spending bill to President Donald Trump.
At the heart of concern for hospitals is the fact that the House budget blueprint calls for $880 billion in cuts to be generated through the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California). The Senate blueprint, on the other hand, calls for more modest cuts.
For California, where 15 million people rely on Medicaid for health care coverage, such cuts would be devastating — when a hospital closes or is forced to reduce services due to Medicaid cuts, that hurts everyone, no matter what type of coverage they have.
On Monday, the two legislative chambers announced a July 4 deadline to pass the budget bill. That means concrete language for these proposals is likely to start materializing over the next few days or weeks, and we will begin to have a better understanding of exactly where Congress wants to go with its spending cuts.
As we wait for specific proposals to take shape, CHA continues to deliver the message — both in person and via digital platforms — that, regardless of how the debate over appropriate federal or state responsibility for Medicaid financing turns out, hospitals and the people they serve are the ones who will be hurt by funding gaps and cuts.
Earlier this month, 13 Republican members of Congress — including California Reps. Young Kim and David Valadao — penned a letter to House leadership voicing opposition to Medicaid cuts. In it, they said they support “targeted reforms,” but “will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.”
Signatures on a letter aren’t votes, of course, and with a historically narrow majority in the House, just a handful of individual choices can change the outcome of this debate. As the specific proposals unfold, CHA will use those as opportunities to continue engaging with federal lawmakers — making sure that before a single vote is counted, everyone understands what’s at stake if Medicaid is cut.
