Tampa Bay seniors share worries after House passes bill cutting millions for Medicaid

Yahoo

23-05-2025

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — President Trump's signature legislative package cleared a big hurdle, narrowly passing the House early Thursday morning.
The 'big, beautiful bill' makes changes to Medicaid, imposing work requirements for all able-bodied adults without dependents to stay on the program. Democrats oppose it, saying it will lead to millions losing health coverage.
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Seniors in Tampa Bay shared their concerns about the House passing a spending bill that reports say contains one of the largest Medicaid funding cuts in modern history.
It's kept people like Freddie McKnight afloat.
'Medicaid has been great, taking care of my medical bills. [I] have no copay. And they have been right there for me when I needed them,' McKnight said.
Eddie Lee Martin Sr. said he has grand mal seizures, and Medicaid helps pay for his medicine.
'It made it a whole lot more affordable for me,' Martin Sr. said.
Now, they are imagining what life would be like without it.
'Dangerous, scared, bewildered,' said Gusto Pagan.
Many Medicaid recipients can't work, and these seniors wonder if they will lose their benefits.
Mary Wilson said she was dropped from Medicaid late last year and is still trying to recover.
'I was like really upset about it because like what am I going to do?' Wilson said.
Holly Bullard with the Florida Policy Institute said more people could be in the same situation.
'If this were to pass in the Senate, Florida families will really feel that more than any other state because of the marketplace subsidies that we participate in,' Bullard said.
She said, though the bill mentions cuts starting in December 2026, families who rely on the marketplace could see high premiums in January.
'That's a huge bulk of the number of people who will lose insurance because that family cannot afford a $20,000 increase in their health care premium. They're going to go without,' Bullard said.
The White House said they are protecting Medicaid for American citizens who need it, by ending taxpayer funded benefits for the $1.4 million undocumented immigrants and requiring able bodied Americans to work if they receive benefits. These seniors agree with some of this.
'Half the people that are receiving the benefits don't need them. And that's what makes me angry,' Martin Sr. said. 'Why not check into the people that's getting the most benefits and see where it's going? Not the people that's getting the less amount. Check on the people taking money and spending it on things they don't need.'
But they said they don't want to see their benefits cut in the process of cleaning up the program.
'I just have to just stay as healthy as I can and hope nothing really bad happens after that,' McKnight said. 'It's not justified, just to give billionaires the tax cut. I just hope that the Senate would do something. Trim it down like they always do. Do something advantageous to us people out here that need that type of benefit.'
The bill does increase funding to the 10 states, including Florida, that declined to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The bill now heads to the Senate where reports say it's likely to change before reaching President Trump's desk.
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