--- title: Health Care Bill: Medicaid Cuts Would Break Trump Pledge description: The Senate health care bill would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, a program that Donald Trump once promised not to touch. canonical: https://time.com/4828769/health-care-bill-medicaid-trump-cuts/ author: Jack Brewster article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-22T18:04:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:16:39.965Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Promised He Wouldn't Touch Medicaid. The Senate Bill Includes Billions in Cuts og:description: "I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid." og:url: https://time.com/4828769/health-care-bill-medicaid-trump-cuts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51e4f60b4acde5c9/6988d2cdfb4eac9dbd89292d/trump-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Holds 'Make America Great Again' Rally In Iowa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Promised He Wouldn't Touch Medicaid. The Senate Bill Includes Billions in Cuts twitter:description: "I'm not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51e4f60b4acde5c9/6988d2cdfb4eac9dbd89292d/trump-iowa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Promised He Wouldn't Touch Medicaid. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Jack Brewster](https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/) ## Jack Brewster Jun 22, 2017 6:04 PM UTC  President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., on Wednesday, June 21, 2017. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., on Wednesday, June 21, 2017.Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Jack Brewster](https://time.com/author/jack-brewster/) ## Jack Brewster Jun 22, 2017 6:04 PM UTC The Senate health care bill would cut [hundreds of billions of dollars](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/upshot/gop-health-plan-is-really-a-rollback-of-medicaid.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news) from Medicaid, a program that Donald Trump once promised not to touch. The Better Care Reconciliation Act unveiled on Tuesday would phase out extra money provided to states to expand Medicaid and restructure the program in ways that would reduce spending on it over the long term. In May of 2015, one month before he launched his campaign for president, Trump [told the conservative _Daily Signal_](http://dailysignal.com/2015/05/21/why-donald-trump-wont-touch-your-entitlements/?utm%5Fsource=twitterfeed&utm%5Fmedium=twitter) that he would not touch the Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid programs. “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump said. “Every other Republican is going to cut, and even if they wouldn’t, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know where the money is. I do.” He made the same point on Twitter, arguing that primary rival Mike Huckabee had stolen his idea: > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/596338364187602944) This is not the first time Trump’s campaign promise has looked like it’s at risk. In May, the Trump Administration proposed a federal budget that incorporated cuts to Medicaid that were included in the House version of the health care bill. The Trump budget also called for an additional $600 billion reduction in the Medicaid budget [over the next ten years](https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/05/23/trump-budget-does-cut-social-security-and-medicaid-breaking-major-promises/#1a3d90f69b75). Both the House and Senate versions of the bill would [dramatically change Medicaid](http://time.com/4827508/health-care-bill-senate-provisions/). The House bill would institute a per capita cap on how much the federal government spends on each recipient and allow states to receive a block grant instead. The Senate bill would also tie the annual growth rate to standard inflation, instead of medical inflation, causing a reduction in funds over time. “This is a bill that would end Medicaid as we know it, rolling back Medicaid expansion, cutting federal support for the program even more than the House bill,” Senator Chuck Schumer [said on Thursday](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/06/22/senate-health-care-bill-medicaid-and-taxes-would-slashed/103098556/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4828769/health-care-bill-medicaid-trump-cuts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4828769/health-care-bill-medicaid-trump-cuts/"},"headline":"President Trump Promised He Wouldn't Touch Medicaid. 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