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URGENT MESSAGE
Medicaid cuts put home and community based services at risk
Contact your congressperson
Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) play a critical role in ensuring that many autistic individuals and others with disabilities receive supports in their home and community. Proposed cuts to Medicaid, the major funding source for HCBS, pose a significant threat to the availability of needed community supports. They also threaten to propel us backwards to a time when autistics and others with disabilities were forced to live in institutions, nursing homes, and other segregated settings.
Medicaid pays for 78% of personal care services. It is the primary source of health and long-term community supports for about 1/3 of individuals with disabilities in the US. More than one in five people receiving Medicaid are people with disabilities. Current funding through Medicaid is clearly insufficient with over 700,000 people on waiting lists for Medicaid-supported HCBS. Proposed cuts that would reduce the underfunded Medicaid program by 2.3 trillion dollars would make it even more difficult for people with disabilities to receive necessary healthcare and community supports.
Please contact your Congressperson as soon as possible to let them know how important Medicaid is to you or your family members. A majority of families include a person with a disability. There will be a lot of angry voters from both parties if Medicaid is cut. You can use the following search tool to find contact information for local, state, and federal elected officials: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
For more information on the importance of Medicaid for autistic individuals and others with disabilities and for advocating for Medicaid see:
- DREDF: Medicaid is under attack! Tell you elected officials: "Hands off our Medicaid!" https://dredf.org/hands-off-our-medicaid/
- TASH: Tool-Kit: How to Advocate for Medicaid. https://tash.org/tool-kit-how-to-advocate-for-medicaid
- ASAN: Medicaid: Let's fight for our health and services in the community. https://autisticadvocacy.org/actioncenter/issues/healthcare/medicaid/
- KFF: 5 Key facts about Medicaid coverage for people with disabilities. https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/5-key-facts-about-medicaid-coverage-for-people-with-disabilities
In addition, some resources are linked below that you may find helpful:
- The Georgetown Center for Children and Families (CCF) https://ccf.georgetown.edu/ has posted 50 + DC state factsheets provide important basic information about the value of Medicaid for children and families. In addition, CCF written a series of blogs that describe the proposals https://ccf.georgetown.edu/format/blog-posts/ and developed topic specific factsheets (e.g., maternal health, foster care, schools, rural areas). The CCF interactive map shows county-by-county proportions of the population covered by Medicaid - a very useful tool for rural, urban and other counties. https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2025/01/14/medicaid-coverage-in-metro-and-small-town-rural-counties-2023/
- The George Washington University Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health has 50 + DC + PR state factsheets about the role of Medicaid support for community health centers. They also have a new Data Note including the number of health center adult patients at risk in each state if ACA Medicaid expansions are ended. https://geigergibson.publichealth.gwu.edu/medicaid-coverage-over-nine-million-community-health-center-patients-risk-under-federal-work
- The Commonwealth Fund has a primer on Medicaid and another set of 50 + DC state factsheets and a map. These contain different information, including medical debt and behavioral health for youth. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/maps-and-interactives/2025/jan/map-how-medicaid-helps-your-state
- KKF updated its primer -- 10 things to know about Medicaid -- this week. https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-medicaid/ KKF also has an analysis that estimates the impact on states of proposals such as elimination of the ACA Medicaid expansion enhanced federal matching. https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/eliminating-the-medicaid-expansion-federal-match-rate-state-by-state-estimates/ And, why Medicaid is a red and a blue state issue. https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/medicaid-expansion-is-a-red-and-blue-state-issue/
- Protect Our Care https://www.protectourcare.org/ Is working in dozens of states to support local advocacy and education. https://www.protectourcare.org/this-week-members-of-congress-local-officials-advocates-join-protect-our-care-to-tell-republicans-hands-off-medicaid/ Protect Our Care also is expanding its “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign to defend Medicaid from cuts.
Want to read just one thing? Putting it all into a Health Affairs Forefront piece, Sara Rosenbaum and Alison Barkoff give perhaps the best detailed overview of how the budget reconciliation process works and the threats to Medicaid in current proposals to disrupt the federal-state partnership. Details on the law and process there: https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/lies-ahead-medicaid-budget-reconciliation
Some links to recent news articles:
Politico: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/01/31/congress/trump-love-and-cherish-medicaid-00201893