U.S. Senate See Full Big Line

(D) J. Hickenlooper*

(R) Somebody

80%

20%

Governor See Full Big Line

(D) Michael Bennet

(D) Phil Weiser

60%↑

50%↓

Att. General See Full Big Line

(D) M. Dougherty

(D) Jena Griswold

(D) David Seligman

40%

30%

Sec. of State See Full Big Line

(D) A. Gonzalez

(D) J. Danielson

(R) Sheri Davis

50%

40%

30%

State Treasurer See Full Big Line

(D) Brianna Titone

(D) Jeff Bridges

(R) Kevin Grantham

40%

30%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

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90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Somebody

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd*

(R) H. Scheppelman

(D) Alex Kelloff

70%

30%

10%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert*

(D) Trisha Calvarese

(D) Eileen Laubacher

90%

20%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank*

(D) Somebody

80%

20%

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90%

10%

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90%

10%

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(R) Gabe Evans*

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(D) Manny Rutinel

(D) Shannon Bird

45%↓

30%

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

May 12, 2025 02:10 PM UTC

Gabe Evans' "Big Beautiful" Medicaid Cuts Land With Resounding Thud

1 Comments
by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Speaking tonight with Denver7, Rep. Gabe Evans assumed full ownership of legislation that will strip almost 9 million Americans of their health coverage including thousands in his district:

“This bill follows through on Republicans’ promises to cut waste, fraud, and abuse while protecting coverage for Colorado’s most vulnerable populations,” said Colorado Congressman Gabe Evans, R-CO08, who sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee. “The critics will spread fear about cuts for political purposes, so let me clear: this bill allows Medicaid spending to increase year-over-year for the next ten years. As the father of a medically complex kid, I understand how significant programs like this are, and that’s why I am committed to protecting Medicaid and ensuring its longevity for the people who need it most.”

This is what going down with the ship looks like, folks. Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s response looks aimed squarely at her junior colleague:

Colorado Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen said the bill will hurt Colorado families if it passes.

“Republicans can hide behind empty promises, but we know the truth: their plan will kick millions of people off their healthcare,” said Pettersen. “Their bill will hit single moms the hardest and will rip coverage away from families who need it most, so they can hand out more tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the world while also adding trillions of dollars to our deficit. Coloradans are already struggling to make ends meet, and it will get worse for many. I’ve heard from families across my district who are terrified about what this means for them. Our office is here to help connect you with the resources and support you need.”

—–

Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Gabe Evans plotting to take somebody’s health coverage, maybe yours.

As AP’s Lisa Mascaro reports, the House Energy and Commerce Committee featuring America’s most vulnerable freshman Republican Rep. Gabe Evans has released the long-awaited details of their component of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” slashing the size and scope of basically every part of the government except the military–and while we await the final analysis showing just how much pain will be purposefully inflicted on the American people by congressional district in order to pay for further tax relief for the wealthiest Americans, with the remainder slapped on the nation’s credit card in a way that only seems to be acceptable when Republicans are in the White House, here’s what we can say for sure:

Tallying hundreds of pages, the legislation revealed late Sunday is touching off the biggest political fight over health care since Republicans tried but failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, during Trump’s first term in 2017.

While Republicans insist they are simply rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” to generate savings with new work and eligibility requirements, Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage. A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade… [Pols emphasis]

“In no uncertain terms, millions of Americans will lose their health care coverage,” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the panel. He said “hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes.”

NBC News digs into some of the details of the “cost savings” extracted from Medicaid in the bill, the standard euphemism for people you know either losing their health coverage or struggling for the sake of the imposed struggle to keep it:

The bill would make a slew of Medicaid spending reductions through policies such as stricter eligibility verification, citizenship checks, tougher screenings on providers who get reimbursements and federal Medicaid funding cuts to states that offer coverage to residents living in the U.S. illegally.

The bill also seeks to impose work requirements to receive Medicaid for able-bodied adults aged 19 to 64 without dependents, demanding they work at least 80 hours — or perform 80 hours of community service or other programs — per month. It includes exceptions for pregnant women and short-term hardship waivers in limited cases.

Although the bill reportedly does not include cuts to the reimbursement rate to states who lawfully expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which was a potentially budget-crippling cut for Colorado with no simple way to recoup the loss due to our own unique fiscal constraint known as TABOR, it’s important to understand how the additional “eligibilty verification” and other new screenings will have the effect of throwing hundreds of thousands of otherwise eligible patients off the coverage rolls simply due to the difficulty if the new screenings. Yes, some small number of people who shouldn’t be covered may be weeded out, but that number will be offset many times over by legitimate patients who for any number of reasons can’t jump through the new requisite hoops.

With the release of the details of the bill yesterday evening, Democrats have found an unlikely ally in the form of arch-conservative Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who between cheering on insurrectionists and pushing his singularly lame book about “manhood” realized slashing Medicaid would hurt a whole lot of Missourians:

“Mr. Trump has promised working-class tax cuts and protection for working-class social insurance, such as Medicaid,” Hawley wrote. “But now a noisy contingent of corporatist Republicans — call it the party’s Wall Street wing — is urging Congress to ignore all that and get back to the old-time religion: corporate giveaways, preferences for capital and deep cuts to social insurance.”

Hawley has consistently spoken up about his opposition to the House plan to use Medicaid cuts to pay for the party-line megabill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been charged with finding at least $880 billion in federal spending cuts over the next decade.

Missouri is one of several red states that expanded Medicaid. Despite his longtime opposition to ObamaCare, Hawley has made it clear he will protect access to Medicaid in his state and will not support legislation that would lead to benefit cuts for Missourians.

One person we haven’t “Hurd” from yet is Colorado’s freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd, who is already on record warning that he will oppose any bill that cuts Medicaid too far–while being careful to make an allowance for some “cost savings” like…work requirements and additional eligibility screenings. Now that we have a proposal with specifics, it will be up to stakeholders in Hurd’s district to explain to him how their fraction of the almost nine million Americans who stand to lose their coverage will devastate their hospitals, practices, and personal lives. All it will take is a few Republicans in the House to be swayed by Sen. Hawley’s warnings and the “big beautiful bill” is dead. Not to mention that on the other side of the equation, the Freedom Caucus has the power to kill any bill that doesn’t cut Medicaid enough. If you asked us to bet our last dollar on this entire effort collapsing in a heap, we’d take the bet–as long as you don’t ask exactly how, because there are too many different failure scenarios.

What matters more than anything else is that none of this has to be happening at all. If Trump and a Republican trifecta were not in total control of the federal government acting out their decades-long pent-up pipe dream of reducing the modern American government to some mythical past version of itself that they can overthrow with muskets, these institutions that millions of Americans depend on would not be in danger. There is no impetus driving this campaign to slash America’s social safety nets other than it’s what Republicans have wanted for decades but always considered it too politically risky to fully implement.

Here in Colorado, Gabe Evans is the face of this because-we-can shortchanging of the most needy to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Now that we have the numbers quantifying the pain, the by-district breakdowns of Medicaid coverage loss are imminent. The “waste and abuse” Evans has insisted would pay for these cuts won’t be enough, and too many of his residents will be snared in the purposeful new hurdles to keep their coverage.

The time has come for Evans to stop skipping votes and cast the vote his constituents have dreaded since the day he took office. It’s not just us saying this could well be the vote that makes Gabe Evans a one-term congressman. All we can say is that if Evans truly believes he was called by the Almighty to serve in Congress, cutting health coverage for millions is a strange way to short-circuit the Lord’s will.

One thought on “Gabe Evans’ “Big Beautiful” Medicaid Cuts Land With Resounding Thud”

JohnInDenver says:

May 12, 2025 at 4:04 pm

Release the "only Republicans" bill Sunday night and plan to start the major mark-up on Tuesday — maybe there won't be too many informed challenges.

If CBO sticks to the estimate of 8.6 million fewer on the Medicaid rolls and there are 79 million on it now, my magic math says it is a 10% drop. Evans, Hurd, Boebert, and Crank will have a great time explaining to those 10% why they are "waste, fraud, and abuse."

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Gabe Evans' "Big Beautiful" Medicaid Cuts Land With Resounding Thud

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