This week, Senate Republicans released the tax and health care parts for their version of President Donald Trump’s desired “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
But they face a huge problem: The bill is becoming incredibly unpopular. A poll from Ipsos and The Washington Post found that a plurality of Americans oppose the bill, with 42 percent opposing it, 34 percent saying they have no opinion and 23 percent saying they support it.
Specifically, they are grappling with the unpopularity of the bill’s changes to Medicaid. And it does not show signs of letting up. On Monday, the Senate Finance Committee released the text of its part of the bill.
During the debate around the bill in the House, Republicans made it so that able-bodied adults without dependent children would have to work, participate in education or community service for 80 hours a month. Conservative Republicans lobbied to make the work requirements begin in 2026 rather than 2029.
The Senate bill goes even further. For one, it lowers the age at which children are considered dependent to 14 years old. That means parents of children older than 14 would have to work to keep their Medicaid.
Sen. Jim Justice, a freshman from West Virginia, defended the work requirements.
“Biblically, we are supposed to work,” he told The Independent. “We have taken the dignity and the hope and the belief away from a lot of people where they are hopeless, they think they can’t. “
According to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, about 29 percent of West Virginians are on Medicaid and 62 percent of West Virginians on Medicaid work either part-time or full-time.
It seems Republicans know how politically caustic touching Medicaid might be. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a freshman from Ohio, tore into reporters.
“You guys really need to report it accurately, though, which is we’re actually increasing the amount of money we’re spending on Medicaid,” Moreno told The Independent this week. “We’re spending more on Medicaid. We’re also eliminating the abuse by able-bodied adults, and we’re reinstating the fact that Medicaid is for people who need it.”
Trump has said he wants the bill done by the July 4th holiday. Earlier this week, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz, the television host, met with Senate Republicans to discuss the bill.
The legislation also seeks to cap the level of provider taxes. To pay for Medicaid, many states levy taxes on facilities like hospitals or nursing homes. This often allows for states to collect the money to receive matching funds from the federal government.
Under the proposed bill, states that did not expand Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act signed by then-President Barack Obama, would be prohibited from raising provider taxes. States that did expand Medicaid would see their provider taxes reduced by 0.5 percent annually until they are capped at 3.5 percent in 2031.
“The provider tax is a way around the match,” Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota told The Independent. “The whole point is for us to get after waste, fraud and abuse, and the provider tax is a way for states to avoid putting up their share of the match.”
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