America’s Essential Hospitals continues to lead a thorough and strategic defense of the Medicaid program as Congress navigates the budget reconciliation process. As of the time of writing, midafternoon on Friday, May 16, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has concluded its markup of the budget reconciliation text; the committee approved it on a party-line vote of 30 to 24. As expected, Democrats offered all the amendments, which were rejected on party-line votes.
The bill then went to the House Committee on the Budget the morning of May 16, where all the other committees’ work was packaged together to be passed on to the House Committee on Rules. However, the full budget resolution package failed in the Budget Committee, marking a large setback for Republicans. Republican leadership will meet with hardliners over the weekend and reconvene on Sunday, May 18, at 10 pm ET to retry the vote. If the bill passes, it will move to the Rules Committee the week of May 19. This is the next opportunity for significant changes to the bill, and changes are expected.
Republicans would still like to reach a floor vote on the bill by Memorial Day weekend. The road ahead is still unclear, with a chance of the full package coming off the rails due to intraparty disagreements within the Republican caucus.
Association Advocacy
This position builds on months of dedicated advocacy by the association and its member hospitals. In late February, President and CEO Bruce Siegel, MD, MPH, penned a powerful letter to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce urging the protection of Medicaid. The letter was quoted by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) in a hearing and officially entered into the congressional record.
In early April, Siegel followed up with a letter to congressional leaders Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), collectively known as the “four corners.” The letter raised serious concerns about proposed reconciliation measures that could harm Medicaid, jeopardizing care for patients and threatening the stability of hospitals nationwide.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) echoed language from these communications during his historic Senate speech from April 1 to 2.
On April 30, ahead of House reconciliation markups, more than 330 member institutions joined together to sign a letter to Congress calling on lawmakers to reject any cuts to Medicaid in budget reconciliation.
These efforts have been reinforced through ongoing engagement with key House and Senate offices, including members sitting on the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees, on the Senate Finance Committee, and in leadership roles in both chambers of Congress.
In addition, the association launched an advertising campaign that has reached more than 9.3 million Americans. The campaign directs viewers to the Protecting Medicaid section of our website, which offers comprehensive resources outlining the program’s importance and in opposition to the legislative proposals to cut it. The campaign has driven more than 64,000 visits to the landing page and almost 1,000 downloads of association-provided resources.
Across all advocacy channels, America’s Essential Hospitals has continually opposed harmful changes to Medicaid, including alternations to state directed payments and provider taxes, as well as changes to the federal medical assistance percentage, per capita caps, and other policies. We continue to advocate fiercely to protect this lifeline for our patients and communities and encourage you all to connect with your lawmakers in collaboration with these efforts.
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