Republican Explains Potential Changes to Medicaid
Source: Newsweek
Published Apr 22, 2025 at 12:52 PM EDT
GOP Representative Austin Scott of Georgia explained a potential change House Republicans could make to Medicaid during an interview on Fox Business' Mornings With Maria. Newsweek reached out to House Speaker Mike Johnson for comment via email.
Why It Matters
More than 80 million Americans are currently enrolled in Medicaid, a government program providing health care to lower income individuals. President Donald Trump has said he would not cut the program, but some Republicans in Congress are eyeing cuts, setting up a potential intraparty battle over the matter.
What to Know
Scott said House Republicans have been discussing a potential change to Medicaid expansion. Currently, states that have enacted Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act receive a 90 percent federal matching rate, known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP). This means the federal government takes on 90 percent of those costs, while the state governments take on 10 percent.
Republicans are considering lowering the FMAP, which would shift more the funding to the states, Scott told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Monday. "When the Dems expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, they made that percentage match 90-10, so the federal government is paying 90 percent of the Medicaid expansion," Scott said. "What we have talked about is moving that 90 percent level of the expansion back to the more traditional levels of 50 to approximately 80 percent, instead of the 90-10." He said "nobody would be kicked off Medicaid" as long as governors continued to fund the program.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/republican-explains-potential-medicaid-changes-2062614
What's missing out of that discussion is that not all states accepted the Medicaid Expansion. It was ORIGINALLY mandated but the SCOTUS threw the mandate out.
There are currently 41 states (including D.C.) that accepted Medicaid Expansion - https://www.kff.org/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions/
But if this particular GOP plan goes through, then they will obviously be on the hook to fund more of it - all to give billionaires enough to compete in the "Who has the biggest Yacht" contest.
Found some info on state specifics here - https://stateline.org/2025/04/17/states-that-enshrined-medicaid-expansion-in-their-constitutions-could-be-in-a-bind/
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they will scurry off again because that is the reason why most of those states didn't want it in the first place - and especially during the period when it was mandated (before the SCOTUS threw the mandate out).
I remember reading articles when Steve Beshear was still governor of KY and how their state was setting up their own health insurance exchange for the ACA. The state called it "kynect". The knuckle-draggers insisted they "didn't want no 'Obamacare' because they had 'kynect'". 
None of those other states really surprised me (sadly), but I thought the Badger State was better than that! *sigh* Even Arkansas and Louisiana have adopted the expansion. Wisconsin, you can do better than this! 
Please note: I say all of the above out of genuine love for Wisconsin. I live in Northern Illinois, less than an hour from the Wisconsin state line, have traveled extensively, in the state, and absolutely love the place. I hate to see my cheesehead neighbors miss out on all the advantages of the Medicaid expansion after seeing the benefits here in Illinois.