--- 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 is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. 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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