Sermoune Blaylock has been a home health care worker for 17 years for multiple clients including her son, Xavier, who is on the autism spectrum and has a chromosomal disorder.
Blaylock is diabetic, but as a recipient of Medicaid — a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for lower-income individuals — she is able to afford her insulin and remain healthy enough to make sure Xavier is able to attend school and make it to all of his appointments.
That affordable care is in danger, however, as an effort by congressional Republicans that could lead to $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid would significantly increase costs for Blaylock and about 1.2 million other Minnesotans who rely on the program.
“We need adequate health care so we can provide adequate care for our children and clients across Minnesota,” she said. “If we can’t be healthy, how can we help others be safe and healthy?”
Blaylock joined U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., and state Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, DFL-Minneapolis, during a news conference on Thursday to sound the alarm regarding a budget resolution from the Republican majority in Congress proposing cuts to the program, which helps provide health care to more than 80 million people nationwide.
“What we have is a Republican-controlled Congress, along with Donald Trump, preparing the steps to give massive tax breaks to billionaires like Elon Musk,” Smith said. “What their intention is is to pay for it by taking away health insurance for millions of Americans.”
The budget package from House Republicans in Congress includes $2 trillion in spending cuts to reach a goal of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks, extending tax cuts passed during President Donald Trump’s first term that were set to expire this year.
The bill doesn’t outline specific cuts but asks committees to meet certain targets. For the Energy and Commerce committee, which funds Medicaid, that target is $880 billion in reductions over the next 10 years.
Federal Medicaid funding helps cover around 57% of health care costs for the 1.2 million enrollees in Minnesota, providing access to services from physicals and immunizations to X-rays and other lab work. The program also helps pay for half of all long-term care and covers health care for 42% of children across the state.
“We’re talking about seniors, we’re talking about children, we’re talking about people with disabilities,” Mohamed said during the news conference. “We have one of the best health care systems [in Minnesota] because we are able to take advantage of that federal funding. Without it, our entire system will be in shambles.”
Mohamed called the proposed cuts “horrifying,” saying that state lawmakers’ job to balance the budget this legislative session would be almost impossible should the cuts become law.
“I’m really worried about what these next few months will look like,” she said.
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Other lawmakers echoed Mohamed during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday morning on the proposed cuts to federal funding and the potential impact on Minnesota.
“The state has some very significant budget challenges ahead and we can’t ignore the elephant in the room that could dwarf any state problems and could confuse everything we’re doing,” said Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, who chairs the committee. “These budget cuts, the potential ones, just the scope of them blows away everything else.”
More than a dozen Republican legislators wrote a letter to the state’s GOP congressional members opposing the Medicaid cuts ahead of the U.S. House vote on Tuesday, the Star Tribune reported.
Minnesota expects to receive $23 billion in federal funds this fiscal year. Medicaid funds make up nearly half of that total at $11 billion.
Dave Greenman, chief financial officer at the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), told the committee the exact impact is currently unclear, but the proposed reductions could range from 8% to 12% in federal Medicaid funds nationwide. For Minnesota, that would amount to a decrease of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion in 2027.
Greenman said the DHS is preparing for several scenarios that Congress might pass, including a cap on federal spending per enrollee, which would force the state to make up the difference. Trump explored caps on Medicaid spending during his first term in the form of waivers, as well as efforts to raise the income threshold for Medicaid eligibility.
“Without language and without knowing what the proposals are going to be, we can’t put any precise price tags on any of them,” Greenman told lawmakers at Thursday’s committee hearing. “But we’re very concerned about what the impacts of these proposals might be.”
Though Congressional Republicans have the votes to pass the proposed cuts should the package make it to the Senate, Smith said she is doing all she can to stop the proposal from going through. That includes convincing colleagues to vote against it and holding town halls to educate people about the cuts, which she called “deeply unpopular.”
