'I'm barely surviving': Mike Johnson's constituents nervous as he eyes Medicaid cuts
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and his fellow Republicans have been eyeing massive cuts to Medicaid as part of a budget package that will also include renewing that 2017 tax-cut package passed under the first Trump administration.
However, KFF Health News reports that constituents in Johnson's district in Louisiana are feeling nervous about the planned Medicaid cuts, as 40 percent of residents in that district rely on the program to provide health insurance.
Chloe Stovall, 23, who works at a local grocery store, told KFF Health News that losing coverage through Medicaid would be a major blow to her finances.
"I'm just barely surviving," she explains.
Others who live in the district also expressed worry about the potential cuts.
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Doris Luccous, 24, who works as a housekeeper at a nursing home, told KFF Health News that "most everybody" she knows in the area is on Medicaid and that "I don't know where I would be without it."
Neither Stovall nor Luccous voted in the last election and neither of them previously knew that Johnson is their representative.
Johnson's office insisted to KFF Health News that the GOP's proposed budget plan would not affect Medicaid coverage for people in his district who need it.
"We're going to be very careful not to cut a benefit for anyone who is eligible to receive it and relies upon it," the office said.
All the same, Medicaid cuts could affect more than just recipients, as KFF Health News also spoke with Todd Eppler, the CEO of Desoto Regional Health System, to talk about the potential impact cuts would have on a local hospital, which recently took out millions in loans for a renovation project and was counting on its Medicaid funding remaining stable as it paid them off.
"I just hope that the people who are making these decisions have thought deeply about it and have some context of the real-world implications," Eppler said. "Because it's going to affect us as a hospital and going to affect our patients."