Donohue: “Everyone will feel the $1 trillion cut in Medicaid”
Medicaid provides health insurance for one in five Americans. It is the largest insurance program by enrollment, covering around 74 million people, including 40 percent of births, 66 percent of people in nursing homes and, when combined with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), half of America’s children. H.R.1 (The One Big Beautiful Bill Act), signed into law in 2025, is estimated to cut Medicaid spending by nearly a trillion dollars by 2034 and cause millions to lose coverage. (Credit: Adobe Stock) HPM Professor and Chair Julie Donohue joined the Healthy Dialogue podcast (hosted by her husband and HPM alum Dr. Derek Angus ) to discuss the wide-reaching impacts of the cuts and how everyone, not just those enrolled, will feel the effects. Medicaid was enacted in 1965 in the same piece of legislation that created Medicare – and by some of the same people in the federal government who influenced the New Deal policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt. HPM Professor and Chair ...