Large cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will inflict suffering upon millions of Americans, panelists say
Circle of Protection, a PC(USA) partner, offered a sobering assessment during a Wednesday webinar
LOUISVILLE — Circle of Protection, a partner organization of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), gathered experts and a member of Congress Wednesday for a webinar on how cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to Medicaid and SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, will impact communities. Panelists also shared ways people of faith can mitigate the damage.
Sojourners president, the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, moderated the panel, which included:
- U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Maryland Democrat and a member of House committees on Appropriations and Ethics
- Liza Lieberman, vice president for public affairs for Mazon, a Jewish response to hunger
- Paulo Pontemayor, senior director for government relations at the Catholic Health Association
- The Rev. Richard Williams, pastor of Metropolitan United Methodist Church and director of the Beacon Center, both in Montgomery, Alabama.
Circle of Protection describes itself as “a broad coalition of Christian denominations and ministries” that sees as its moral duty “to stand up for the most poor and vulnerable in our society.” Wednesday’s webinar was hosted by the National Council of Churches.
The $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid that H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Trump July 4, “will be enormously damaging, especially to working folks across the country, and will probably be worse in the red states than the blue states,” Ivey said. Hospitals in red states rely more heavily on Medicaid reimbursements, “and that will lead to some of these hospitals shutting down,” he said.
He’s heard from people who said their premiums rose so fast that “they are dropping [their insurance] and hoping nothing goes wrong, or they’ve downgraded to different types of plans.”
“Thank you for the work you do,” he told those on the call. “It’s making a difference and we need you now more than ever.”
Lieberman said it’s always been Mazon’s contention that “it’s a policy decision to allow hunger exist.”
“Unfortunately, what we are seeing [with the new law] is taking us in the wrong direction,” she said. One example is the shift that will require states to pay for 75% of SNAP’s administrative cost, up from the current 50%.
The “bigger piece” is the change set to take place in October 2027 that will require that most states be on the hook for paying part of the SNAP benefits. “That has always been handled by the federal government,” she said. “States are scrambling to figure out how they’re going to do this.”
The new law also has work requirements, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that 2.4 million SNAP recipients will lose their benefits because of these new requirements, she noted.
Pontemayor said Catholic Health Association “pushed back hard” on new community engagement and work requirements. Some states, such as Nebraska, are speeding up those requirements, even before they’re mandated. “We’ll be watching to see what the Nebraska experience will be,” he said.
The CBO says that under the new law, Medicaid spending will be reduced by $344 billion over the 10 years. The CBO also says 11.8 million Americans will lose their health care coverage under Medicaid.
Pontemayor asked: what can we do together?
“We can engage as the rule-making process begins” this year, he said. “We can push the [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] to give states a lot of flexibility. We hope CMS will look at broad definitions of medical frailty, and we encourage CMS to listen to many stakeholders and be as transparent as possible.”
The most important thing people can do is “share the experiences of those who rely on Medicaid in the real world,” he said. “It makes stories real for legislators. These are life-affirming and life-giving programs. Medicaid makes it possible to love a fruitful and valuable life.”
Williams said for the families he serves in Montgomery, Medicaid and SNAP benefits can be “the difference between stability and crisis.”
“Families who are just barely hanging on are feeling the pressure of tightening eligibility and shrinking benefits,” he said. “The first place people often run to is their local church.”
He worries that if Alabama doesn’t elect to fund its share of SNAP benefits, “SNAP could be reduced, eligibility rules will be more restrictive and the state could say, ‘we don’t want to do SNAP at all.’”
“When large programs shrink,” he said “the demand placed on local ministries and organizations becomes overwhelming.”
“Faith organizations will continue to show up,” Williams predicted, “but strong communities require strong partnerships.”
“It’s important that we understand the ins and outs of these changes,” Taylor said before offering a closing prayer. “We also know advocacy is not a spectator sport.”
Learn more about Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) advocacy efforts against reductions to SNAP benefits here.
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
