Health

Pritzker, Democratic Congressional Members Sound Alarm Over Potential Medicaid Cuts for Nearly 770,000 Illinoisans

Nearly 770,000 Illinois residents could lose their health care coverage amid Republican efforts to cut Medicaid, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who was joined by members of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation to sound the alarm during a Friday news conference.

“If Medicaid is cut, no state in the country has the money to backfill the billions of dollars in funding,” Pritzker said. “It will be gone, and the consequences will be devastating. People will be stripped of life-saving care. People will die.”

Those most at risk of losing Medicaid coverage are the 770,000 Illinoisans covered through an Affordable Care Act expansion, according to the governor’s office. The federal government covers 90%, or about $7.5 billion, of the expansion costs annually while the state covers the rest with roughly $750 million, Pritzker said during a news conference earlier this week.

Cuts to Medicaid would especially impact the most vulnerable in communities, such as low-income individuals and people with disabilities, according to Illinois Democratic congressional members. Many safety-net hospitals also rely on Medicaid funding, they said.

“Any of the proposed cuts will create widespread turmoil, from the individual customers who lose coverage to the health care system and economy more broadly,” said Elizabeth Whitehorn, director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. “They will severely limit even the most basic health care for millions of Americans and send the uninsured rate soaring.”

Medicaid, a joint federal and state health care program available to low-income individuals, covers 3.4 million people in Illinois, including 1.4 million children, according to the governor’s office. Those covered by Medicaid amount to about 25% of the state’s population.

On Tuesday, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed a budget resolution that asks the Energy and Commerce Committee, responsible for health care spending such as Medicaid, to cut $880 billion over the next decade. The measure passed 217-215, with a single Republican and all Democrats opposed.

During a trip to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Pritzker said he met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to discuss the impact of potential Medicaid cuts and frozen federal funds in Illinois.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Eunice Alpasan: @eunicealpasan | 773-509-5362 | [email protected]

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