Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that he will not support the House spending bill because it has “real Medicaid benefit cuts.”
Hawley said, “It ought to be just a basic foundational principle, it is wrong to cut health care for the working poor, and that’s what we’re talking about here with Medicaid. My state is a Medicaid expansion state, over 20% of Missourians, including hundreds of thousands of children, are on Medicaid.”
He added, “I don’t like the idea of decreasing funding for rural hospitals. I’m worried that the House bill goes way too far in that regard. I also don’t like what is basically a hidden tax on working poor people who are trying to get health care. I mean, this whole idea of we’re going to charge them now additional co-pays in order to access health care — have to say that this sounds like a tax to me. So, now we’re taxing poor people when they’re trying to get access to health care. I’ve got big concerns about that.”
Host Manu Raju said, “So if this bill comes over from the House to the Senate and you have to vote on it, are, you a no if this bill does not change?”
Hawley said, “I’m not going to support this bill from the House in this form. I think that’s clear, it’s got to change before it can pass the Senate. I continue to stand by my line in the sand, which is no Medicaid benefit cuts. Listen, if you want to do work requirements, I’m all for that. I bet every Republican and I bet most Americans would agree with that. But we’re not talking here about just work requirements. The House goes much, much, much further than that. This is real Medicaid benefit cuts. I can’t support that. No Republican should support that.
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