In a spate of in Congress, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recoiled almost every time a lawmaker referred to enacted in President Donald Trump鈥檚 big 2025 .
Throughout the budget hearings, many Democrats raised concerns about how the cuts could affect rural hospitals and leave vulnerable Americans without health insurance. Kennedy frequently interrupted them to claim no cuts existed.
CLAIM: 鈥淭here are no cuts to Medicaid,” Kennedy said. “We are increasing Medicaid spending by 47% over the next 10 years. Increasing spending by 47%. How is that a cut? That is only a cut in Washington, D.C.鈥�
THE FACTS: Medicaid analysts say Kennedy鈥檚 explanation is inaccurate political spin, and say an inevitable increase in spending due to factors like a changing population and rising health costs doesn’t negate that there was a funding cut.
To help partly offset lost revenue from sweeping tax cuts and new spending, Trump’s law last year enacted significant reforms to Medicaid, including new work requirements and eligibility changes, that are expected to cut the health care safety net program’s spending .
Kennedy’s argument is that Medicaid spending is projected to grow from year to year over the next 10 years 鈥� so there can’t be a cut. His staff cited a February Congressional Budget Office showing 47% growth over a 10-year period to back up his argument.
But experts explain that if the tax cuts and spending law hadn’t passed, Medicaid spending would be growing more.
鈥淭his is an old, sort of tired argument that鈥檚 been used by conservatives to justify spending cuts by saying, well, if spending is still growing in nominal terms, somehow there wasn鈥檛 a cut,鈥� said Edwin Park, a research professor at Georgetown University. 鈥淭he federal government is spending nearly a trillion dollars less than it otherwise would have in the absence of the legislation.鈥�
Sara Rosenbaum, a professor emerita at George Washington University鈥檚 school of public health, said Kennedy鈥檚 claims have been a common theme from Medicaid opponents throughout her 51-year career working on and studying the program.
鈥淚t鈥檚 absurd,” Rosenbaum said. 鈥淭hey cut a trillion dollars.鈥�
Republicans and the Trump administration have maintained that the Medicaid reforms were necessary to root out bad actors using the government’s resources despite not being eligible. They’ve positioned the changes as part of their campaign to tackle health care fraud to increase affordability of the programs.
鈥淭o be clear, HHS is taking steps to ensure Medicaid serves those it is intended to support,鈥� said Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon. 鈥淭hese actions are not cuts 鈥� they are focused on addressing waste, fraud, and abuse to better position the program for those who rely on it.鈥�
Park said the law’s more burdensome enrollment requirements would certainly also affect eligible Americans, resulting in 鈥渕any more uninsured people, and people going without needed care.鈥�
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