Key House Republican opposes Medicaid cuts
But Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said that he'd oppose cutting them.
Buchanan, the chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said that Republicans could do it by rooting out waste.
'I'm not for cuts in Medicaid,' Buchanan said at POLITICO's Health Care Summit Wednesday. 'There are a lot of inefficiencies. We've got to find a way to be able to ... do things better for less."
Buchanan's comments come as Republicans are trying to figure out how to pay for President Donald Trump's plan to cut taxes, boost border security and expand energy exploration. House leaders want to find $880 billion in savings to pay for it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that would need to come from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that more than 75 million low-income Americans rely on.
Whether that can be done without cutting benefits is a matter of debate and some Republicans have warned their leaders against going too far.
Buchanan said Republicans are open to reducing payment rates for states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change could force states to reduce benefits or raise taxes to avoid doing so.
'It's something they're going to look at,' Buchanan said, adding he hopes to protect Medicaid for the most vulnerable. The federal share of payments is higher for certain beneficiaries in states that have used an Obamacare provision to extend benefits to more enrollees with higher incomes than traditional enrollees.
Buchanan said the ballooning federal debt necessitated a search for savings.
'Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security — I'm for all that,' Buchanan said. 'Our interest on the debt is a trillion dollars a year... We've got to find a way to [be] more efficient.'
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