The recent passing of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will negatively affect the 27,571 Montgomery County residents who qualify for free health insurance under the non-Modified Adjusted Gross Income Medicaid program.
It also would result in less food for the nearly 70,000 residents receiving SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to several officials who represent Montgomery County.
Both Medicaid and SNAP were cut in the approved federal budget.
According to County Executive Marc Elrich, this budget “will have devastating effects on our residents. As someone who’s worked on many budgets, I believe I can say I’ve rarely seen a proposal so short-sighted and damaging. It is a moral and fiscal disaster.”
Elrich noted that “tens of thousands of residents are on Medicaid. They are low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities who would lose access to basic healthcare. Their coverage pays for doctor visits, mental health care and long-term services that allow them to live with dignity.”
The cutting of SNAP benefits “would directly increase food insecurity in Montgomery County. Children would go to school hungry. Older adults would be forced to choose between meals and medicine, something that too many people already struggle with. Our nonprofits, schools and food banks would be overwhelmed.”
Rich Madaleno, County Chief Administrative Officer, called the budget cuts “an attack on vulnerable residents.”
While the full effects of the Medicaid cuts will not go into effect for two years, “the end result will be fewer people in need receiving food assistance,” he said, adding, “The bill doesn’t solve problems, it creates problems, many problems.”
Montgomery County “will have to do more with less” funding, he said.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8) called the bill “disastrous,” and said it would throw 17 million Americans off health care coverage and millions off SNAP benefits.
“Marylanders covered under the Affordable Care Act will see their premiums, copays and deductibles balloon by an average of $2,730 per year,” according to Raskin. He estimated 246,000 Marylanders will lose their Medicaid benefits.
U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6) estimated that nearly one in seven Marylanders, including one in three children, depend on Medicaid for their health care.
She also said that 32,000 people in her district, which includes Rockville and Gaithersburg, are projected to lose coverage under Medicaid and CHIP, Children’s Health Insurance Program, during the next decade. One in four children would lose access to the full Child Tax Credit.
“The reality is that cutting these programs is not sound fiscal policy. Without preventive care, emergency visits rise. When kids go hungry, their futures—and our economy—suffer,” McClain Delaney noted.
