Advocate says 30,000 Nebraskans could lose Medicaid coverage under budget bill

The budget bill moving through Congress would end Medicaid coverage for about 30,000 recipients in Nebraska, including more than 3,000 children, a health care advocate said Wednesday.

Kelsey Arends of Nebraska Appleseed spoke about the budget bill in a Zoom call with other health care advocates. Arends said the Senate version of the bill would cut even deeper than the House version.

“Under the initial House version of the bill, up to 3,000 kids in Nebraska were expected to lose coverage because of changes in technical requirements. The newly passed Senate version cuts off even more kids from coverage,” Arends said.

She said those “technical requirements” include a work requirement for parents. She said 92% of those on Medicaid would still qualify. But in states that have tried such requirements, many have lost coverage because they didn’t complete the necessary paperwork.

Overall, Appleseed estimates 30,000 Nebraskans will lose Medicaid coverage. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

District 2 Congressman Don Bacon said he negotiated positive changes for Medicaid that wouldn’t impact quality of care. The bill is estimated to increase the federal deficit, but Bacon said people miss the other reasons why there’s a large deficit to begin with.

“A lot of my guys on the very right, they worry about dimes and pennies when the big bill is sitting over here and they refuse to talk about it. We need grown ups in the room that are willing to take on the big problem here. And you can't solve this Republican only," he said at a press conference Monday.

Bacon added he estimates the bill is about 80-85% of what he wants.

“Are we better off keeping the tax cuts permanent, keeping the inheritance tax off, keeping the investment tax credits on and the things that we're going to do for our military in this bill. There's a lot of great stuff in this legislation too, so you got to weigh it out," he said at the Monday press conference.

Bacon said he is confident the Medicaid changes will not impact quality of care, instead removing those who should not qualify for the health care plan. Those changes, he added, made it so he could vote yes for the bill. Nebraska’s two other Congressmen and two U.S. Senators also voted in support of the bill.