Ambitious House Agenda on Medicaid Could Stall in Senate

CQ Roll Call

By: Joe Williams and Erin Mershon

House Speaker, Paul Ryan, has supported the program to repeal the ACA, but senators are warning that the proposed plans will not pass in the upper decision-making chamber. Basically, the House is supporting the repeal of ACA, but the Senate is trying to avoid it, because – as Joan Alker mentioned – there is a substantial amount of Americans that have been benefited by the health care law’s expansion.

The amount of people on Medicaid has greatly increased since the last time the GOP attempted to overhaul the program, due in large part to the health care law’s expansion. This presents a major challenge to Republicans, said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown’s Center for Children and Families.

“If they do try to restructure the entire Medicaid program, that is going to be a huge battle,” she said in a recent interview. “This is the biggest formula fight Congress is ever going to have, period.”

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