The potential federal Medicaid and Medicare cuts under the House budget resolution would eliminate $880 billion dollars over the next 10 years. This would leave states with the decision to make cuts to other such programs like education, one the largest sources of spending from state funds.
The proposed cuts would impact 3 million seniors and people with disabilities, 14 million of adults and 22 million children enrolled in Medicaid.
Victoria Baker is 26 years old and lives with her husband and mother-in-law in Roswell. Baker is unable to afford housing due to their financial situation. She is pregnant and works a full-time job as a manager at Micheal’s in Canton, Georgia.
“I’m actually already on Medicaid. I’ve been using Medicaid for the whole pregnancy [and it is] really helping right now with the hospital bills,” Baker said. “I feel like I might need to get another plan ready just in case they do cut it. I think it’s really concerning, but I don’t really think that there’s much that I can do about it anyways.”
If Medicaid cuts start in 2026, states would receive nearly 12% less in federal government funding and $72 billion in funding would be lost. State economies would loose $95 billion in gross domestic product and 888,000 jobs could also be cut.
Joe Dempsey is a retired Vietnam veteran who lives with his oldest son, Shane Dempsey, after suffering from a stroke in the spring of last year shortly after losing his his wife to lung cancer. He has been enrolled in Medicare, Social Security and Veterans Affairs since he retired from working for Forsyth County’s Water Department.
“I’ll probably be in the poor line [or] soup line somewhere, but if they take anything away from inside my Social Security, I’ll be ruined. It wouldn’t have took long [because] I don’t have savings or anything.”
Prescription pills, occupational and speech therapy were mostly covered by Medicare during Dempsey’s month long stay in the hospital.
In 2023, 71.6 million people received benefits from programs administered by the Social Security Administration, more than 66 million people in the U.S. get their health care from Medicare and in 2024 over 71 million people enrolled into Medicaid.
