SAVANNAH, Ga. () – Almost $500 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare could be triggered if President Donald Trump’s budget bill becomes law.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed in the Senate on Tuesday.
“Being without medical insurance during a crucial time in my life would be terrible,” expressed Kathryn Roseen, a senior citizen from Bryan County.
Roseen is among the millions of Georgia seniors who rely on Medicare as their primary health insurance. She is also among those facing the potential risk of benefit reductions.
Research from KFF, a policy-focused non-profit, indicates that more than 1.8 million people in Georgia are Medicare recipients. In South Carolina, the number exceeds 1.1 million.
“Most people haven’t heard that seniors could potentially face 500 billion dollars, billion dollars. 500 billion dollars in automatic cuts. It’s heartbreaking,” she said.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars, which experts said could trigger automatic spending cuts.
“They need to pay for that through this kind of complicated process known as sequestration, which basically means clawing back a specific percentage of federal spending on certain programs, including Medicare,” Deputy Director of the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF Juliette Cubanski said.
If there are cuts, Medicare recipients are anticipated to feel them sooner rather than later.
“You will see people getting emails that they’re no longer qualified or that their services are narrowing or that the premiums that they’re going to have to pay out of pocket are exponentially higher,” Chief Program Officer at Caring Across Generations Nicole Jorwic said.
However, there is an action lawmakers could take to avoid the cuts to Medicare.
“Congress votes to kind of wipe the slate clean, and they have done that in all previous cases where there was a requirement for sequestration of federal spending on Medicare,” Cubanski said.
Even if separate legislation prevents Medicare cuts, as the bill is written, there would still be significant cuts to Medicaid.
“Medicaid makes Medicare affordable. Medicare is really expensive. There are monthly premiums, co-pays, co-insurances, deductibles,” Managing Director of health advocacy at Justice in Aging Amber Christ said. “So, Medicaid pays for those costs for Medicare enrollees with low incomes, and the bill would roll back rules put in place to help people enroll and maintain that financial assistance.”
Supporters of the so called “Big Beautiful Bill” have argued that the changes to Medicaid will make the program more accessible.
“What we did with Medicaid was to stabilize it and sustain it, save it, make it better for those who truly need it. That is the most vulnerable in our society, the aged, blind, disabled, mothers and children, that’s who we made it better for,” Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) said.
Since several provisions in the bill have been significantly altered in the Senate, the bill will now go back to the House of Representatives for another round of voting.
President Donald Trump said he wants to sign the bill on July 4.
