GREAT FALLS — As Congress moves forward with a budget package that would task the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, to cut at least $880 billion over ten years, some Montana caregivers have been left anxious about their future.
Caregivers and community members gathered outside the federal courthouse in Great Falls on Tuesday to express their concerns over potential Medicaid cuts.
WATCH:
Among the attendees was Kerry Ann Fraser, who is a full-time caregiver for her special needs son, and said she relies on Medicaid for his specialized care.
Fraser says, “His seizure medicines and muscle relaxers and the things that he has to have to live every day would pretty soon be unaffordable. I kind of think it's a priority, that's the way I feel. These cuts in personnel and in the budget aren't necessary. Cut other things.”
Lexi Gilcher, a caregiver in Great Falls, says, “Most of my clients depend on Social Security and Medicaid, and it would harm them. It would harm my job, harm my clients, and possibly their health.”
An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office last month showed that the current budget goals could not be reached without reducing some spending on Medicaid.
U.S. House Republican leaders, including Montana U.S. Representative Troy Downing, have remained adamant that no one lawfully on the program is in danger of losing their benefits.
During a telephone town hall last month Downing spoke to concerns about cuts to programs like Medicaid, saying, “I think that you can have a program that's just got huge amounts of misspent money, misspent bureaucracy, where you can clean all that up without actually taking a benefit from anybody who is lawfully due that benefit.”
Congress has said they plan to achieve the budget goals by eliminating “fraud, waste and abuse” within the program, which includes looking into improper payments, and tightening work requirements for recipients.
