On Thursday, May 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 119, also referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act," bringing with it massive cuts to Medicaid if passed.
The reconciliation bill, which passed the House by a one-vote margin, will be voted on and potentially modified by the Senate before it goes to the desk of the President to be signed into law. In order for the bill to pass through the Senate, it needs a simple majority of votes – meaning just 51 Senators need to vote “yes”.
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) is Arizona’s version of Medicaid. Those cuts amount to more than $700 billion over the span of 10 years, the largest cuts in the program’s history. Over 70 million Americans rely on Medicaid along with more than 15 million Americans with disabilities – making up nearly one third of Medicaid enrollees nationwide.
In Arizona, just over two million people are enrolled in Medicaid/AHCCCS and thousands of individuals with disabilities rely on the program for their healthcare in the state.
As part of the bill, anyone enrolled in Medicaid will have to renew their eligibility twice per year, instead of once, which will increase the risk for people with disabilities to lose their coverage in error.
“Adding additional unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles in order to maintain access to critical supports is not only going to cost the state money to administer, but plainly speaking, it’s cruel,” Ability360 Chief Executive Officer Chris Rodriguez said.
Additionally, the bill mandates new work requirements that require millions of beneficiaries of Medicaid to log work, education or volunteer hours with their state in order to maintain healthcare. If passed into law, these work requirements would start in 2026. Preliminary reports and studies on the effects of work requirements have shown that they are costly to implement and oftentimes result in eligible individuals being kicked off Medicaid even though they are meeting those requirements.
An estimated 7.6 million Americans will lose their Medicaid coverage because of the cuts, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
It is unclear at this time how the work requirements will affect the disability community as many may be exempt but the bill, as it stands, does not define what it means to be “unfit for work.”
We want to make it clear, this isn’t the end. Advocates are working tirelessly with the Senate in hopes of rejecting the proposal. Ability360 urges the Senate to protect Medicaid. This program is essential for millions of our country’s most vulnerable people and can not sustain a cut of this magnitude. It provides a lifeline for people with disabilities to live in their homes, care for their families, and live independently.
If you’d like to contact your Senator to share your story on what Medicaid means for you, you can visit this link.