Van Hollen, other Dems push legislation to boost Medicaid and counter Trump cuts
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in a file photo from February. (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
Senate Democrats unveiled a package of bills Thursday aimed at expanding access to health care coverage, including one bill modeled after a successful Maryland law that lets taxpayers use their tax returns to enroll in care.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen's (D-Md.) 'Easy Enrollment in Health Care Act' is one of about a dozen bills — including one from Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) requiring Medicaid and Medicare to provide dental, vision and hearing coverage — put forward by Democratic senators as a response to the Trump administration's efforts to cut federal health care spending.
'We're all here for those two reasons,' Van Hollen said Thursday at a Capitol Hill news conference to unveil the bills. 'One is to shine a light on the great damage and harm the Trump Republican plan will do. But also to put forward some ideas about what we could be doing to actually make health care better for more Americans.'
Van Hollen joined Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico to unveil the bills.
The Democratic legislation comes at a time when the Senate is deliberating the Republican-backed 'One Big Beautiful Bill.' The budget reconciliation bill would implement a number of Trump agenda items, including drastic cuts to Medicaid and other supports that backers say are needed to rein in what they call 'waste, fraud and abuse' in those programs.
With a Republican majority in both the Senate and the House, Wyden acknowledged that the Democratic bills have little chance of passage. But. he said, Democrats still hope Republicans will work with them on the legislation and 'do the right thing.'
Report: Up to 100,000 Marylanders could lose coverage if Medicaid imposes work requirements
Democrats and health care advocates say the budget reconciliation bill would create more administrative hurdles for Medicaid recipients and will result in millions of people losing coverage, even if they would be eligible for the joint state-federal health care program.
'It's 'beautiful' if you're a billionaire or a very wealthy person. For everybody else, it's an ugly mess,' Van Hollen said of the GOP bill. 'It comes at the expense of everybody else in America. And that's especially true when it comes to attacking health care … In fact, it will kick 16 million Americans off their health insurance plans.'
He said his bill, modeled after Maryland's 'Easy Enrollment' program, would do the opposite.
In Maryland, Easy Enrollment lets people check a box on their state tax forms to allow the state to use information on the return to see if their household qualifies for Medicaid. Those who qualify then get further information on what options they qualify for, reducing administrative hurdles to Medicaid and other programs in Maryland.
'What we should do is make it easier for eligible individuals to get the Medicaid that they are eligible for,' Van Hollen said.
This is the second time he has introduced the bill in Congress. A version introduced in the last Congress never even got a committee hearing.
The other Democrats at the press conference offered their own bills to strengthen Medicaid.
Cortez Masto's bill would increase funding for health care fraud investigation units to help catch more waste, fraud, and abuse in the system. She says that is more productive than just cutting funds to Medicaid.
Luján is sponsoring a bill to temporarily expand federal funding to Medicaid programs for home- and community-based services that help support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Wyden also highlighted his own legislation to address hospital labor and delivery unit closures by supporting rural hospitals with additional Medicaid dollars.
'Fact of the matter is that Democrats want to make it easier for Americans to get health care, rather than put people who desperately need health care through bureaucratic water torture if they're going to get the health care they need,' Wyden said.
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