7 Michigan Republicans vote to help Trump gut health care for 200,000 Michiganders

Michiganders are bracing for consequences after President Donald Trump signed Republican-led legislation to cut federal funding for Medicaid.  

LANSING—All seven US House Republicans from Michigan helped advance President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful” budget bill into law. And now Michiganders are bracing for up to 200,000 of their families, friends, and neighbors losing health care coverage statewide.

“This bill will have a devastating impact on people’s lives,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement this month. “Cuts to Medicaid will hurt vulnerable Michiganders the most.”

Trump’s congressional spending bill passed in the US House last month with support from Michigan Republican US Reps. Tom Barrett, Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John James, John Moolenaar, Lisa McClain and Tim Walberg. It was signed into law by Trump on July 4.

The law features a sprawling tax and spending package that delivers large tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations while slashing funds for programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And the latest reports show the budget bill will carve roughly $1 trillion out of the Medicaid program over the next 10 years. As a result, state officials say nearly 200,000 Michiganders could lose their coverage altogether—largely because of new paperwork hurdles and eligibility checks that are included in the newly signed federal legislation.

A state report reviewed in a joint legislative committee last month warned that hospitals—especially in rural areas—may also be forced to downsize or close due to fewer Medicaid patients, ultimately threatening up to 30,000 health care jobs statewide.

What’s in the law?

The law imposes new work requirements for Medicaid and food assistance, rolls back clean energy incentives, and adds red tape that experts warn could push more than 17 million Americans off their health coverage, including hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan.

Under the plan, able-bodied adults without dependents would need to complete at least 80 hours a month of work or community engagement to qualify for Medicaid. Reports show that most Medicaid recipients are already fulfilling those requirements, but will now soon be required to complete additional paperwork in order to continue receiving their benefits, which could ultimately trap them in a maze of bureaucracy and cost them their coverage.

The same rules will apply to those seeking food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the cutoff age would rise from 54 to 64. Some parents would also face new work requirements. Under the recent changes, estimates show that about 3 million people would lose access to their SNAP food stamps benefits nationwide.

Medicaid currently covers about 2.6 million Michiganders—roughly one in four residents—including three in five nursing home patients, nearly half of all births, and 300,000 people with disabilities, according to data provided by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office.

The cuts are also set to gut a key source of funding for nursing homes, hospitals, and providers—especially in rural areas, where more than 60% of births are covered by Medicaid.

At the same time, the law expands the federal child tax credit and increases the standard deduction, but those benefits skew heavily toward higher-income households. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the changes would add about $4 trillion to the national debt over the decade, with most of the benefits flowing to the wealthiest Americans.

The tax changes will reportedly raise incomes for the top 20% of Americans by about $5,700 a year, according to a recent Yale study. Meanwhile, the poorest households in the nation—those earning under $13,350—will lose nearly 3% of their income, or about $700 a year.

The law also includes billions of dollars to prop up US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as the largest federal police agency in terms of both dollars and detention space.

READ MORE: Michigan hospitals at risk of closing if Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ passes

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