Republicans’ Medicaid cuts pit working Pennsylvanians against the ultra wealthy

Gov. Josh Shapiro appeared on a local radio program on Wednesday to warn Pennsylvanians about the impacts of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s plan to cut $715 billion from Medicaid in order to pay for Trump’s tax cuts.

Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians are at risk of losing their health insurance after US House Republicans passed a budget bill out of committee that cuts Medicaid funding by $715 billion in order to pay for President Donald Trump’s tax cuts that primarily benefit corporations and the ultra-rich. 

Close to 2 million adults and 1.4 million children throughout the commonwealth rely on Medicaid-funded programs, and the proposed cuts could slash $2 to $5 billion in federal funding for Pennsylvania. 

“Medicaid provides health care access for folks who are poor, folks who are disabled, babies, seniors,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said while appearing on WILK Newsradio’s The Morning News on Wednesday. 

“It provides a lot of support for a lot of people. Three million Pennsylvanians get their health care and related services through Medicaid. In Luzerne County, it’s 101,000 people. In Lackawanna County, it’s 59,000 people.”

The bill would make permanent Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Corporations had their taxes cut from 35% to 21% and households earning more than $800,000 per year, or the top 1%, benefited the most from the 2017 legislation, according to a 2024 study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  

Shapiro warned that Pennsylvania will not be able to make up for the proposed cuts in the state budget. He also explained how the cuts will be devastating for rural hospitals, which see a lot of patients covered by Medicaid and therefore rely heavily on the program to keep their doors open.

“Our rural hospitals, which are teetering on the brink of closure, you will see more and more close. This isn’t hyperbole. This isn’t just a lot of noise. This is the reality of what they’re debating in Washington,” Shapiro said. 

According to the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN), there have been 32 hospital closures in Pennsylvania since 2004, and another 25 have stopped services like emergency care or maternity care. A 2023 report from PHAN found that at least nine of those hospitals that closed served rural communities. 

Shapiro stated that his office is preparing to break down the impacts of the Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts by congressional districts. 

Congressman Dan Meuser, who is considering challenging Shapiro in next year’s gubernatorial election, has over 172,000 constituents in his district covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), according to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. 

In a recent Fox Business News interview, Meuser appeared to suggest he supported cutting programs, including Medicaid, to fund Trump’s tax cuts. When asked by the host what cuts he would make, Meuser replied: “They’re endless. A to Z.”  

“If they go and vote to slash Medicaid, they’re voting to cut their constituents off from health care access,” Shapiro said. 

He added, “these guys are all about to face a really tough choice. Do they side with Donald Trump, who wants to give these tax cuts to people who are at the upper ends of our income limit, or do they side with the people that they represent?”