Latest news with #CoverAlabama
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal SNAP, Medicaid cuts could harm Alabamians and the state budget, advocates say
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., is pictured on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Federal cuts to SNAP and Medicaid could significantly strain Alabama's budget, but Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund committee urged caution due to the bill's uncertainty, despite critics calling the measures "cruel." (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) A budget bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives could impose significant financial and social challenges in Alabama. The measure could cut food assistance and Medicaid program funding that serve hundreds of thousands of people with low incomes in Alabama, and potentially cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually. It's still unclear if it will pass the U.S. Senate. The legislation, which passed the House largely along party lines, proposes funding reductions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. Experts and state officials warn the cuts could lead to increased hunger, loss of health care coverage and other economic consequences across the state, particularly in vulnerable rural communities. 'There are three things in the bill, as it came out of the House, that are problematic for SNAP,' said Carol Gundlach, a policy analyst with Alabama Arise, an organization working on poverty issues. 'The first — and the biggest and the most important one — is it shifts cost-sharing to the states.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Historically, states have paid 50% of administrative costs for SNAP, but the benefits themselves have been 100% federally funded. The new bill, Gundlach said, would increase Alabama's share of administrative expenses to 75%, costing the state an estimated additional $35 million. More concerning, she said, is the proposal to shift part of the benefit cost to the states. Gundlach said Alabama could be 'on the hook for about 15% of the actual benefit cost of SNAP,' amounting to at least $254 million annually. 'That would also presumably have to come out of the General Fund, and that's every year, every single year,' Gundlach said. The proposed SNAP changes also include an expansion of work requirements for parents with children over the age of 7. This could force parents to 'jump through a bunch of hoops in order to keep your SNAP benefits, or they're going to cut your family SNAP benefits,' she said. The bill could prohibit the U.S. Department of Agriculture from recalculating the base amount of SNAP benefits in the future, a measure Gundlach said would increase hunger as benefits fail to keep pace with food costs. 'Any way this works, people are going to lose SNAP benefits,' she said, warning that in a worst-case scenario, Alabama could walk away from the SNAP program completely, leaving nearly 1 million people dependent on SNAP, or about 20% of Alabama's population, without food assistance. Debbie Smith, campaign director for Arise's Cover Alabama, said Alabama's 'bare bones' Medicaid program also faces pressures. According to Smith, the bill could cost Alabama '$324 million, I think, over 10 years' for Medicaid, translating to roughly $30 million annually. This could increase Alabama's Medicaid spending per resident by about 15%. 'Any cut to Medicaid is concerning when you have the bare bones program that we have. We really can't afford to cut anywhere,' Smith said. '$30 million for a year … that's still a big impact on our state budget.' The bill would also eliminate the federal incentive designed to encourage states like Alabama to expand Medicaid, a significant concern for Smith. '(The bill) sunsets that incentive, Jan. 1, 2026, so there's no time for anybody to take advantage of it before it sunsets,' Smith said. Even without state expansion, the bill is expected to cause coverage losses. Smith said Arise projects 53,000 people could lose their Medicaid coverage. Combined with the potential expiration of enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, 170,000 Alabamians could lose health insurance, leading to a $592.89 million increase in uncompensated care costs for the state, according to a Center for American Progress analysis. The House bill also proposes reducing retroactive Medicaid coverage from three months to one month. The combined potential costs from SNAP and Medicaid changes could put Alabama's General Fund in a challenging position, but Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, chair of the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund committee, said it's still early in the process and that it's hard to plan for a bill that could still change. 'We know things are going to get tough, OK, but we don't know how tough they're going to be,' Albritton said. Albritton said lawmakers had trouble finding an increase of about $220 million for Medicaid this past legislative session and he expects another significant increase next year. 'Between the changes of SNAP and other changes, that's going to put more pressure on us,' he said. Albritton, who has often voiced concerns about federal program funding being pulled, suggested Alabama is somewhat prepared because it hasn't expanded Medicaid. 'That's something — at least one of the few things we don't have to worry about right now,' he said. Arise described the bill's measures as 'cruel.' Gundlach described the situation as 'making parents choose between adequate care for their children and being able to put food on the table. If there is any definition of cruel, I don't know what else it could possibly be.' Albritton pushed back against such characterizations, calling the term 'alarmist' and blaming partisan politics. He chose a more cautious approach. 'All I can do at this point is sit and watch and wait,' he said. 'There's a lot that we do not know, and we're running around trying to fix something that we don't know what the problem is.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Medicaid expansion advocates speak in Montgomery
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — People gathered in Montgomery for Medicaid Expansion Advocacy Day on Tuesday. One group, Cover Alabama, said it wants lawmakers and the governor to expand Medicaid. It said nearly 200,000 Alabamians are in the coverage gap. Republicans said they would consider it, but the cost is a concern. 'Our state leaders have the power to fix this, to create a system that ensures people can see a doctor when they're sick, afford the medication they need and get care before a small health issue becomes a crisis,' said Debbie Smith of Cover Alabama. Over 100 pharmacies walk out to support Alabama bill 'But the devil is in the details, right?' state Sen. Andrew Jones (R-Centre). 'We've seen a lot of federal money evaporate — grants disappear. We want to make sure that if we do this, we can sustain it, and we're not stuck paying a huge cost because we've got to fund state government. We've got to fund education.' Attendees spoke with their lawmakers about the issue after holding a press conference. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Politico
11-02-2025
- Health
- Politico
Red states likely to feel the pain of Medicaid cuts
Presented by the Coalition for Medicare Choices With Robert King Driving The Day UNEVEN MEDICAID CUTS — If Republicans move forward with deep cuts to Medicaid, the pain won't be spread evenly across states, Robert reports. Advocates and experts say states with higher proportions of low-income and aging residents are likely to be hit the hardest. And many of them are red states. 'We operate a bare bones program,' Debbie Smith, campaign director with the advocacy group Cover Alabama, said. 'I would expect that people would be cut off from Medicaid and that benefits would be reduced. I would expect that hospitals would be in crisis.' Republicans are searching for savings as part of a larger spending package to extend President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, slated to expire after this year. Leaders have long targeted Medicaid as an area to extract savings, but any proposal could face blowback from local officials who don't want to pick up the slack from any cuts. 'I don't see how a governor, regardless of red or blue state, can possibly sit on the sidelines of this conversation,' Barbara Sears, a former director of Ohio's Medicaid program and former GOP state representative, said. Medicaid is a joint state-federal program that offers insurance to low-income and certain other populations. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are considering installing a per-enrollee cap on state spending. The cap would likely change with medical inflation, which can blunt any impact on coverage or benefits, E&C Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said. 'The overall thing for me is we have a $1.8 trillion budget deficit. It isn't sustainable,' he said. 'It's not cutting the program; we want to make it sustainable.' But the impact won't be felt the same from state to state. For instance, a state that goes over the cap could deal with the gap by cutting payments to providers instead of cutting benefits or changing eligibility thresholds. Advocates, however, say cutting payments could exacerbate issues with getting enough providers to take Medicaid patients. Cuts could also hit rural facilities especially hard, with many hospitals in such areas shuttered. 'It is like watching a train wreck happen again and again,' Michele Johnson, executive director of the advocacy group Tennessee Justice Center, said. 'These rural hospitals are the largest employers in that area.' States might also have restrictions on raising taxes. Oklahoma, for instance, requires a three-fourths majority to get a new tax passed. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE. A new study is offering hope for people with peanut allergies: 32 children who consumed increasing amounts of store-bought peanut butter over 18 months — under the supervision of an allergist — were able to overcome their allergies. Send tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and ccirruzzo@ and follow along @Kelhoops and @ChelseaCirruzzo. In the Courts TRUMP NIH FUNDING CUTS TEMPORARILY BLOCKED — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's cuts to health research grant money, POLITICO's Erin Schumaker and Shawn Zeller report. Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts initially issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from imposing the cuts in 22 states that earlier in the day sued to block the reductions. But early Tuesday morning, the judge broadened the order to apply to all research institutions nationwide. The cuts, imposed Monday, target 'indirect funding' from the NIH, which can cover universities' overhead and administrative costs. The change will cap the funding at 15 percent — down from an average of nearly 30 percent, with some universities charging more than 60 percent. The move from the Trump administration is expected to send shock waves through universities and research institutions that rely on the agency's funding. The cuts are expected to save about $4 billion annually, the NIH said. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP TO RESUME FUNDING — The Trump administration must 'immediately restore frozen funding,' including to the NIH, a federal judge ruled on Monday, POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reports. U.S. District Judge John McConnell said the Trump administration has been violating his order to resume funding federal grants that the White House attempted to block with a blanket spending freeze last month. 'The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,' McConnell ruled. 'These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the [order].' Key context: The order came after a group of Democratic state attorneys general accused the Trump administration of continuing to block spending that McConnell's order was intended to release. The Trump administration countered that it is attempting to root out fraud in the programs, but the judge said that reasoning is not sufficient to justify defying the order. Late Monday evening, the administration asked for a stay of the spending freeze order. In Congress COLLINS PUSHES BACK ON NIH CUTS — Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the committee in charge of all government funding, said Monday she opposes the Trump administration's decision to cut $4 billion in health research grant money, POLITICO's Erin Schumaker reports. Collins said in a statement that the cuts, which target NIH grantees' 'indirect' overhead costs, violated the appropriations law Congress passed last March. The cuts 'would be devastating, stopping vital biomedical research and leading to the loss of jobs,' she said. Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, will oversee legislation due next month to fund the government. Key context: Collins' noted in the statement that she spoke with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, about her 'opposition to these arbitrary cuts in funding for vital research.' Kennedy promised that 'as soon as he is confirmed, he will re-examine this initiative that was implemented prior to his confirmation,' Collins said. Collins told CNN on Monday night she plans to support Kennedy's confirmation. RFK CLOTURE VOTE — The Senate is expected to end debate on the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. early Wednesday morning, clearing him for a confirmation vote soon after. According to the Senate Press Gallery, the Senate is expected to move to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence in the early hours of Wednesday, and a cloture vote on Kennedy's confirmation will immediately follow under Senate rules. It's been all but certain that Kennedy will be confirmed as HHS secretary after Republican senators on the Finance Committee united to move his bid forward in a party-line vote. He's also unlikely to face much Republican opposition. AROUND THE AGENCIES NEW HRSA HEAD — Tom Engels has been sworn in to lead the Health Resources and Services Administration, POLITICO's Ben Leonard reports. A person familiar with the situation, granted anonymity to speak about it, said Engels returns as HRSA administrator after serving in the role during the first Trump administration from 2019 to 2021. Engels also served on the White House's Covid-19 task force and helped implement the Provider Relief Fund, which provided financial help to health providers during the pandemic. He was most recently sergeant-at-arms at the Wisconsin Senate. Engels takes over from Carole Johnson, who ran HRSA for former President Joe Biden, and will oversee a broad health portfolio, including the 340B drug discount program, federally qualified health centers and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Names in the News Sylvia Lee and Leandra Olson have joined AstraZeneca's federal affairs team. Lee joins from former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (I-Ariz.) office and will be AstraZeneca's director of tax, trade and workforce policy. Olsen joins from the HHS Office of the Secretary and will be AstraZeneca's director of enterprise policy. WHAT WE'RE READING KFF Health News' Michelle Andrews reports on how ambulances are rarely equipped to perform life-saving blood transfusions. The Associated Press' Sean Murphy and Devi Shastri report on an outbreak of 15 confirmed measles cases in a small county in West Texas with one of the state's highest vaccine exemption rates.
