Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author and dissident .
Cuts to Medicaid
The administration’s signature legislative achievement, a new budget law, OBBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid, the national health insurance program for the poor and disabled, and $285 billion from the country’s largest food program.
The health care cuts will be implemented over several years and primarily target Medicaid – the joint federal-state program that provides health coverage to low-income individuals and families.
The cuts are enacted through several mechanisms that will reduce the number of people enrolled in Medicaid: Work requirements, more frequent eligibility checks, immigration restrictions, reduced state funding options, restrictions on lawfully present immigrants and major changes in the Affordable Care Act,
Thousands of legal immigrants in NJ could be thrown off Medicaid including refugees and domestic violence victims. The changes to Medicaid include adding work requirements and restrictions on hospital aid. These are expected to cost the state $3.3 billion annually in the years to come and could force some 350,000 people out of the plan, according to the department’s calculations.
The cuts to Medicaid, however, will not stop New Jersey from continuing to use state taxpayer dollars to fund its “cover all kids” initiative, which provides health care to undocumented children whose families meet the NJ Family Care program’s regular income-eligibility requirements.New Jersey is one of 14 states, plus Washington D.C., to commit state or local dollars to covering undocumented children, according to KFF, a nonprofit health policy analyst.
Medicaid cuts will devastate nursing home residents. . Medicaid is the primary payer for nursing home care. It pays directly for residents’ careand provides financial support that enables many residents to use their Medicare benefit as well. Medicaid is critical for nursing home residents because the United States does not have acomprehensive program to pay for long-term care services.
Democratic-leaning states will feel more of the impact of Medicaid cuts in an analysis by Oxford Economics. The report says that millions of Americans – regardless of where they live – will lose access to health insurance because of the tighter eligibility rules and new work requirements. Undocumented immigrants will be disproportionately affected, with many losing coverage under Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. States such as California and New York – which have both expanded Medicaid and have large immigrant populations – are expected to be hit hardest. Other vulnerable states with large immigrant populations include Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Washington, D.C.
Cuts to SNAP
As many as 144,000 Pennsylvania residents, and as many as 45,000 Philadelphians, could lose their food stamps, according to state officials.The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps pay for groceries. New work requirements for SNAP recipients take effect. People who receive food stamps have to work 20 hours a week, or prove they have a medical or caretaker exemption.
Once you leave the New York Metropolitan Area, how many families are in need of support? This map shows the share of households in each state that reported receiving cash public assistance (also known as TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or food assistance (also known as SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in 2023. Trump’s recent megabill has slashed federal funding for safety net programs and pushes food aid costs to the states.Draft proposals would require states to cover between 5% and 25% of benefit costs starting in 2028 and pick up 75% of administrative expenses.This marks a major change from today, where the federal government funds SNAP benefits entirely.
Red states brace for SNAP fallout. Republican state officials are still assessing how their budgets will be impacted by the GOP’s recently passed megabill, which dramatically slashes federal funding for safety net programs and pushes food aid costs onto states for the first time. Several officials report that they’re mainly focused on decreasing their payment error rates, which measures over and under-payments of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — the metric that will determine how much of the program states will need to pay for starting fiscal year 2028.
N.J.’s hunger crisis intensifies amid cuts from ‘Big Beautiful Bill”. Food Banks like Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Human Needs Food Bank, 40 Food Banks of South Jersey have seen demand increase significantly . 1 in 9 New Jerseyans are considered food insecure.
This map shows the share of households in each state that reported receiving cash public assistance (also known as TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or food assistance (also known as SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in 2023
Cuts to Medicare
The OBBB will cut $1 trillion from health programs – the largest rollback of federal support for health care in American history. These cuts will result in an estimated 10 million people losing their health insurance coverage. It is projected to add at least $3.4 trillion to the national debt. It speeds up the timeline for when Medicare’s trust fund (which pays for hospital care) will become insolvent. While these broad health care cuts will affect many Medicare beneficiaries indirectly, including those who are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, several provisions of the OBBB directly target Medicare beneficiaries.
The OBBB limits Medicare coverage for immigrants. Restricts premium-free Medicare Part A to citizens or lawful residents. Prohibits most asylum recipients from receiving Medicare coverage. It includes only a modest increase for physician reimbursements: It eliminates Medicare for refugees, survivors of human trafficking or domestic violence, and people with temporary protected status. In addition, it blocks improvements to Medicare savings programs and nursing home staffing standards.
American citizens with a Low Income Subsidy, a cost sharing program with Medicare Part D was cut so the LIS recipients will have to pay more for prescriptions. Another cost sharing program called Medicare Savings Program was blocked and it will impact low income individuals who used it to afford things like prescription drugs, medical supplies, hospital stays and nursing facility care.
Impacts on the Affordable Care Act
The law is going to make it more difficult to enroll in coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace, also known as Obamacare, and then harder to keep coverage, due to a few changes:
Enrollees will need to update information around their income, immigration status, and other details every year, or risk losing coverage.
Plans are no longer automatically renewed. Individuals will have to manually reenroll every year during open enrollment. Last year, 10 million people were automatically reenrolled.
The open enrollment period has been shortened by a month—now ending December 15, rather than January 15. For the current plan year, 40% of people signed up after December 15.
New enrollees—including those who enroll outside of open enrollment due to a life event or income change—will need to prove eligibility before they can receive subsidies that help offset the cost of their monthly premium. This is a change from the current policy, which allows applicants to get up to 90 days of premium assistance during the application process.
It’s also likely to drive up the cost of ACA plans, due to what’s not in the law: The law does not extend the ACA premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Without those, premiums are predicted to increase for 2026 by an average of 75%. This is the issue at the center of the deadlock in the shutdown fight in Washington DC between the Democrats and the Republicans.
Legal Responses
Twenty-one Democratic attorneys general, including New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, sued in federal court to block the new policies of HHS and the labor and education departments. “By altering a “decades-old understanding” of federal law, the administration has “wreaked havoc, affecting dozens of vital community programs, millions of people, and billions of dollars in funding” to the states, the attorneys general said in an updated complaint.
New York sues to stop Medicaid cuts for Planned Parenthood. New York has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop a law that would cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. The lawsuit alleges that the new federal law targets the organization illegally and violates the First Amendment, the Spending Clause, and the ban on bills of attainder in the U.S. Constitution.
A U.S. appeals court panel on September 11 allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood while legal challenges continue. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.
Lawsuit seeks to halt Medicaid terminations in Florida The Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program filed the lawsuit on behalf of three Floridians in US District Court in Jacksonville against the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration and the Department of Children and Families. The residents are a 25-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter, who has cystic fibrosis, as well as a 1-year-old girl.
Lawsuit challenges USDA demand for food stamp data as some states prepare to comply. In new guidance issued earlier this month, the USDA told states they must turn over data to the agency, through their third-party payment processors, “including but not limited to” names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and addresses of all applicants and recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, going back more than five years. More than 40 million people rely on the assistance each month. New York’s Attorney General Letitia James leads nationwide lawsuit against Trump admin over SNAP food benefit data demands.
States Win Order Blocking USDA Demand for SNAP Recipients’ Data A group of 21 states and the District of Columbia won a court order temporarily blocking the US Department of Agriculture from requiring states to turn over the sensitive data of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients.
What You Can Do
Visit the Actions Page and join organizations across the United States . Their actions include letter writing, canvassing, phone banking, demonstrations, texting and more.
Contact your Federal and State representatives and let your voice be heard. Did your US Senator or House Member support these cuts? What will your state do to support citizens who will be cut out of health care and food support?
DONATE to organizations that are working with the communities impacted by these cruel and malicious cuts.
National Immigration Law Center
Find your local Food Bank Donate donate donate and volunteer
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