GILLIBRAND, SCHUMER, WYDEN, DUCKWORTH, COLLEAGUES

PRESS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER THREATS TO CUT MEDICAID FUNDING TO NEW YORK STATE

Withholding hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding will jeopardize New Yorkers’ access to essential care and services

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), ranking member of the Senate Aging Committee; Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Democratic Leader; Ron Wyden (D-OR), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee; and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) led Senate Democratic colleagues in demanding an immediate end to the Trump administration’s threats to cut Medicaid funding in New York, California, Maine, and other states led by Democratic governors.

In a new letter to the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the senators called out arbitrary investigations and cuts to Medicaid programs driven by unfounded claims of fraud. 

“The Trump administration’s threats are a betrayal of the millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid,” said Senator Gillibrand. “President Trump should be focused on bringing down costs for American families, not playing political games with the benefits that so many New Yorkers rely on to get care. This is unacceptable, and I will do everything in my power to ensure funding is protected.”

In addition to Senators Gillibrand, Schumer, Wyden, and Duckworth, the letter was signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

“Let us be clear: you are not going after the real fraudsters,” the senators wrote. “Instead, under the guise of ‘program integrity,’ you are cutting off vital funding for services that seniors, people with disabilities, and children rely on to survive and thrive in their communities.”

The senators continued, “Your decision to arbitrarily withhold massive amounts of federal matching funds is a direct attack on older Americans, children, and adults with disabilities, and the workers who deliver this essential home-based care.”

Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) allow older adults and people with disabilities to receive services in their home and communities. This is a lifeline that lets these populations live and age with dignity in the setting of their choice. Cuts to Medicaid HCBS would cause states to halt payments and scale back programs, forcing Americans who need long-term support into more costly and restrictive institutions, like nursing homes, and shutting down home care agencies and independent care workers.

The full text of the letter can be found here or below.

Dear President Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary Kennedy, and Administrator Oz:

We write to you today on behalf of the millions of Americans who rely on Medicaid to live safely and independently in their communities. We demand an immediate end to the administration’s politicized crusade against states like Minnesota, California, Maine, New York, and other states led by Democratic governors.

Let us be clear: you are not going after the real fraudsters. Instead, under the guise of “program integrity,” you are cutting off vital funding for services that seniors, people with disabilities, and children rely on to survive and thrive in their communities. This summer, you and Congressional Republicans enacted the largest Medicaid cuts in history. Your latest campaign to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from blue states is a thinly veiled attempt to pull the wool over Americans’ eyes and shift the blame for your catastrophic cuts onto Governors.

Your sudden “crusade against fraud” is insulting to anyone paying attention to your actual record. If this administration actually cared about reducing fraud and protecting taxpayer dollars, why did you fire at least 15 independent Inspectors General during your very first week in office? There is no acceptable fraud, nor should Congress or the Administration tolerate any wasteful spending of taxpayer funding. Fraud against Medicaid programs has occurred in every state—both red and blue—and robust processes, including Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCUs), already exist to identify and address it. However, if program integrity is truly the goal, why is the administration pardoning convicted fraudsters? Instead of policing corruption, you are weaponizing the federal government against seniors, people with disabilities, and hardworking families.

The administration is falsely maligning Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)—the very services that keep people out of institutions—as inherently fraudulent. Your characterization of spending growth in personal care and HCBS as evidence of program integrity risk is senseless. Growth in HCBS means that states have successfully implemented the federal mandate to shift away from institutional care toward community-based care. This is a success story, not a scandal. This growth is not evidence of weak oversight; it is the predictable, intended, and celebrated result of decades-long federal and state rebalancing policies that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) itself designed and promoted.

Your decision to arbitrarily withhold massive amounts of federal matching funds is a direct attack on older Americans, children and adults with disabilities, and the workers who deliver this essential home-based care. Funding freezes force states to halt payments and scale back programs. Without home care, Americans who need long-term services will be forced into nursing homes and institutions—a devastating rollback of civil rights that will ultimately cost taxpayers more. Furthermore, home care agencies and independent care workers, who already operate on razor-thin margins while following the law, will be forced to shut their doors.

Rather than vilify children with disabilities and seniors aging at home, Democrats have consistently proposed solutions to root out actual wasteful spending. While you fired the very watchdogs responsible for prosecuting fraud, Democrats have proposed doubling down on anti-fraud programs that return up to $11 for every $1 spent. In 2021, without a single Republican vote, Democrats secured nearly $40 billion in Medicaid support to expand access to home-based care, boost workforce recruitment amid dire shortages, and increase wages for workers.

Meanwhile, Republican cuts to Medicaid are already denying services to families, like capping occupational, speech, and physical therapy visits. These cuts harm Americans in communities all across the country. For example, Theresa and her sister Nellie, now in their 60s, were born with muscular dystrophy that weakened their muscles over time and are now both wheelchair dependent.

Both rely on personal care services provided through California’s HCBS program, called the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program for their daily activities, including getting in and out of bed, dressing, showering, and preparing food. Since they’ve started receiving care at home, both Theresa and Nellie have been able to start working. Their caregiving attendant helps them get ready every morning, including helping Nellie get to public transportation that takes her to her job. She then assists Theresa in settling into her home office where she can get onto her morning Zoom meetings.

In Teresa’s words: “I don’t think I could be on my own without IHSS. I wouldn’t be safe at all and I don’t know how long I would last without an injury. And I wouldn’t be able to work. I would not be able to get ready for the day, or to eat, or to go to in-person work events. Because IHSS allows me to work, I don’t depend on SSI anymore and our life is decent. We don’t have a lot but we have enough–we have a cat, bird feeders, have a decent living room that’s wheelchair accessible, a little bit of furniture. We have the basics, everything we need to be happy.”

Just like Theresa and Nellie, Medicaid HCBS is a lifeline for Patty and Katina. Patty from Tigard, Oregon, left her career as a therapist to become a Personal Support Worker (PSW) so she could care for her adult daughter, Katina, who has Down Syndrome, and requires 24/7 support for her safety.

Patty becoming a PSW after Katina graduated from high school not only allowed Katina to live in her community but has had an enormous impact on the family’s financial stability. Prior to becoming a PSW, Patty relied on social security disability payments as the family’s sole source of income, and they were barely able to make ends meet. At one point, the family went into foreclosure and almost lost their home.

Becoming a PSW has meant that not only does Katina have full-time care that allows her to live as an adult in her community, but the family has become financially secure enough to not have to rely on Social Security payments to live. Patty worries that Medicaid cuts will mean that she will no longer be able to be paid to be Katina’s caregiver. This would force their family into financial ruin and Katina into a facility, which is much more expensive and not what either she or Katina want.

For millions, Medicaid HCBS prevents more costly and restrictive care in residential facilities. Jennifer from Harrison, NY has a young adult son, Philip, who has an intellectual disability and autism. In her words – “He is 24 and is living a fulfilling life due to the support he receives from Medicaid HCBS. Philip has received job training in the community, job coaching in the community, participates in the local YMCA, local riding programs, recreation programs and a day program. He would likely be doing none of these things if it weren’t for Medicaid HCBS. He would be sitting in the house alone. My husband and I both work full time. His siblings are all either in college or working and living on their own, Philip would be sitting in the house staring at the walls. That would dissolve into depression and accompanying poor behavioral control. We’ve been there before and we don’t want to go back to those days in and out of the hospitals. Now Philip has a full life. He has friends, a community, a social life, and he is working towards a work life. He has all of this because of Medicaid HCBS.”